How can I find out if art work is copyright? and if it is how can I get their permission to print their work?

Question

Looking to print pin up girl images of Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren, Rolf Armstrong, Earl Moran and others on t-shirts.

Answer 1

The moment an artist creates a work, it is copyrighted, even though it may not have a copyright notice on it. You are not legally able to use that artwork to make money without the artists written permission even if the artist has died. (The rights may have passed to another person.)

You can contact these artists through the magazines where you find their work, and ask for their permission, but expect that you will be paying a heavy royalty for use of the art as well as other fees.

Answer 2

Depending on the legal jurisdiction you live in – but pretty much everywhere in the English-speaking world – copyright is automatically vested in the creator of a work. (There are a few exceptions, like if you hire someone to paint a portrait of you, then you generally get the copyright in that portrait).

This means that any of those images will be under copyright, held either by the original artist, their estate, or any company s/he may have been working for at the time. (Usually employees sign a contract saying that the company gets the copyright in their works). Point being, that *someone* would hold it (including anyone that may have purchased copyright from the original creator), and you would have to get their permission before reproducing it for profit.

It may be a bit of a wild goose chase to find out who holds it (and they probably won't allow you to use their images for profit anyway, to be honest), but there are some ways to find out. Copyright does not need to be registered (like a trade mark), but often they are anyway, and these are kept in a registry. If you're in the U.S., you can try the United States Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov/) to see if they can help. If the artist (living or dead) has an official website, that would be a good place to go as well.