size of a picture

I have a case here regarding copyright in photographs. Since we are located in europe, I would also appreciate a European legal view point on the matter:

An advertising agency took 5 to 12 images out of the picture catalogue of a stock picture agency and created a layout for its client, layout which is now used in a press campaign.

The questions are the following:

Does the fact that the size of the images are less than 20% of the layout have an influence on the copyright? In fact you may hardly recognise the motives on the pictures. Also: how are pictures to be treated from a copyright point of view when only a "piece" of the pictures are cut out in order to enter a new composition?

Thank you for your insights.

Sylvie Fodor
<s.fodor[_at_]akg.de> Received on Mon Jul 24 2000 - 14:51:06 GMT