Artwork for Prints

'Is it legal', 'can I do this' type questions and discussions.
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Kelvin Crabb
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Artwork for Prints

Post by Kelvin Crabb »

Ive got a question about copyright law.

Im a graphic designer and ive recently come up with the idea of creating artwork from pictures from the internet and putting backgrounds and other text and logos that i have made myself.

But im not sure on where i stand with copyright issues ive been to my local library and havent really learnt anything from the books in there, so i thought maybe someone could offer me some advice.


Thanks

Kelvin
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AndyJ
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Post by AndyJ »

Hi Kevin,
The 'pictures from the internet' you refer to are likely to be someone's copyright, and to just take them and use them in a form of collage is likely to infringe copyright. The law says that copying a substantial amount of a copyright work is infringement, so if you used very small, insubstantial elements from other people's work that might be acceptable.
Alternatively you could use images which the copyright owners have deliberately allowed others to share via the creative commons licensing facility, but you would need to abide by the terms of the CC licence. Or you could seek permission from each copyright owner, although I suspect that would be very time-consuming!
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
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