Re: Fine Art Reproductions

On Sat, 27 Mar 1999, Lesley Riley <lrileyart[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> I make collages. If I use a copy of a work of art in the public domain,
> but from an art book recently published, am I infringing on copyright?

Assuming that we are talking about the U.S. law...

We had a good discussion on the same subject last year. You may want to check Professor Tyler T. Ochoa's good overview at:

     http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1998-01/0861.html

And, Bernard Gerdelman's post which briefly shows how the issue can be contentious:

     http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1998-01/0856.html

You can click on thread at the top to see other posts.

Remember, none of these posts is legal advice.

> Also... a lot of authors are currently using quotes by "famous" people
> in their books, like at the opening of a chapter or on the side of the
> page. Are these quotes (and any others found in a book of quotes)
> public domain?

No, not always. It is best to assume that these quotes are copyrighted (by the "famous" people). You will have to do some research to determine whether a quote is in the public domain.

You may wonder how the authors get the quotes. I could probably guess that they get the permission from the famous people, probably for a price (i.e. royalty). I cannot imagine how the quotes can satisfy the fair use criteria.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Tue Mar 30 1999 - 00:07:17 GMT