The Artist's Copyright Dilemma

Mar 06

Copying is said to be a form of flattery, but there is a fine line between admiration and plagiarism.

As an artist, it is important to be aware of the elements of a valid copyright ownership. Your work is valuable and you should always strive to protect its value in any situation. Additionally, you should be thinking about what resources can be utilized, without an infringement, from other creative works, should the need arise. You might ask yourself when utilizing another’s work for resource material: would you be in violation of any of the elements of a copyright infringement as stated above? Do you need to seek appropriate authorization from the creator of the work? Does the situation warrant calling in a legal expert?

An example of appropriation art case is the one with Jeff Koons made a wooden sculpture based on a photograph by Art Rogers. See the commentary of Mary Ann Fergus on Derivative Works And Copyright: Painting from Another’s Photograph, for the American Society of Portrait Artists, here.

Here is another all too familiar scenario, Deadline for a poster design is near. The client requires a small photo of a car’s engine. The clipart reference doesn’t have an image of a car’s engine and there are no cameras available right now to take a picture. You surf the web, typed in the keywords “car engine”, the link points to a site that sell auto parts and you download a picture of an engine to be used in your artwork. Is this ok?”

Well, according to Jennifer Kyrnin: “…when you use someone’s graphic, HTML, or text without permission, you are stealing, and they can take action against you.”

Here is another one: On a recent valentines card design contest which a friend of mine joined, he only had 2 entries, because designing something takes time. We were surprised to see a few people who entered the contest with literally hundreds of designs in a span of just two weeks! We were not about to judge the designers capabilities on how fast she can come up with the designs, but we began to be curious when they announced that she had in fact won the contest. Upon looking at her artworks we have found several designs literally copied from other artists. We have notified the site for copyright issues and they removed a few of the artworks but still they continued to give the prize to the said artist. We asked them once again that by letting her win they are allowing anyone to just copy someone else’s work. All they would have to do is just search on flickr.com or deviantart.com a keyword i.e. “heart-shaped” and they would just get any or all of the search results and by putting a few sayings on it and a few cliparts, they could call it their designs and if no one questions their designs, they will have a chance to win?

I would have posted here the other photos of the copyrighted works but the site has already removed them.

Stay focused on where you stand when using resource material that you did not create yourself. Portraiture is an area where it is important to know these distinctions and draw upon them as necessary in rendering your projects. Do not put yourself in a position where you must guess which is appropriate for use in your work, and which is not. Consult an expert when in doubt, and always enter into a written agreement with your clients/agents setting forth the details of your commission works.

We would really want your opinions regarding the matter, feel free to add your thoughts by commenting.

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