Legalities of Selling Art
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- mantrakid0
Sounds like: its a legally grey area... depends on the mood of the judge that day, but technically is most at risk for charges of copyright infringement, assuming the original artist first sees the work and then is able to actually prove that they were the one who painted the original painting.
I just dont see what the difference between basically pulling a painting out of the garbage and recycling it into a new piece of work or finding a ps3 controller in the garbage and painting on it and selling it...
- probably cause PS controller was not meant to be a sculpture/painting.pr2
- ukit20
This would be sort of like remixing a song and then selling it without compensating the original artist.
It might be considered more of a gray area since there have not been a lot of cases prosecuted over collage art, it's just not an issue that comes up that much.
- mantrakid0
Another interesting bit I found: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encycl…
Question:
I am an artist who uses books as my medium. I buy a published book and I add collage, paint, and drawings, and otherwise alter the pages. I don't usually cover all of the text. Does this violate copyright laws, or is it the equivalent of accidentally dropping the book in a mud puddle?
Answer:
Using existing books as the basis of your collage is likely to be permitted under the law -- but no more than "likely," because the rules are not 100% clear. Here is an explanation of this fuzzy area of copyright law.
If you purchase a book, you are free to resell it, rent it, soak it in mud, or even burn it if you wish (although please be careful with the book burnings). Once the first sale of a particular copy has occurred, the author's rights as to that copy shrink (under Section 109 of the U.S. Copyright Act). But this "first sale doctrine" still doesn't grant you the right to reproduce, adapt, or perform the work. So, the question is whether your collage amounts to an adaptation of the book. If it does, the book's copyright owner could sue you for infringement.
Even the federal courts seem confused about the first sale doctrine. In the past five years, two relevant cases with similar facts arrived at rather opposite results. In one case, a company purchased a book of prints by the painter Patrick Nagel. The company cut out the individual images in the book and framed them for resale. A court of appeals (for the Ninth Circuit in California) decided that this practice was an unpermitted infringement because the company had "adapted" Nagel's work.
In a different case, however, a company purchased note cards and mounted them on tiles. A federal court in Illinois determined that this practice was not an infringement and was permitted under the first sale doctrine. Go figure!
From your description, it sounds like your work is closer to destruction of the book than adaptation, since readers can no longer make sense of the text. Of course, given the uniqueness of your work, there aren't any court cases that present an answer to your question on a silver platter. You may well be legally okay. But you could still get yourself into hot water if you reproduce the collages -- remember, the first sale doctrine doesn't permit reproductions.
- mantrakid0
An interesting and somewhat applicable bit i found:
http://www.collagecollege.com/co…Copyright laws are important to collage and mixed media artists for two mainreasons. The first is, we want to protect our original art work. The second is,many collage artists appropiate other's works into their work.
Collage is often a derivative work as it may incorporate othercopyrighted material. And derivative work must have the original copyright ownerspermission!
In general, copyright laws are very gray. The safest method of workingis to incorporate your own original photography, drawings and other images intoyour mixed media collage art. There are some artistic reasons as well!
- mantrakid0
I guess thats what im wondering then - is it considered 'ripping off' then? I mean im doing these pieces for myself jsut cuz they look cool in my house, but im getting more and more people asking if I would sell a piece.. am i breaking the law if i do that?
- utopian0
^^^
- utopian0
I really don't see the big deal in today's creative battle ground. Everyone, I mean everyone is ripping each other off and making money off it, hand over fist. Just look at Shepard Fairey, Brat Bra$h, Hollywood, every last musician, etc...
- mantrakid0
based on moral grounds or legal grounds. If i buy a landscape painting from a thrift store for $5 dont I own it? If i want to sell it as-is to someone for $5 i can.. right? If i draw a monster on it, what is the law when the legal owner of the piece is now me?
- dragonfruit0
no.
- mantrakid
If i buy someones art, and then change it in a way that is obvious that the changes were deliberate, can i resell that artwork as my own? Does it matter or can the original artist say 'no that's my work underneath'... If i can resell the original artwork as is, surely i can resell it with modifications... Im not talking about passing off the original work as my own.. im talking about this new hybrid of the original + my shit...
Anyone know what the deal is?
