Copyright restrictions on Collage Art?

Question

Please help me. I make collages using images cut from fashion, current affairs magazines etc. I radically change the appearance and context of the images.

Are these now considered my own creation? I need to know if I am infringing copyright if I sell these.

Answer 1

OK... a few things.

1. Copyright is held almost indefinitely (life of the creator + 70 or so years). For businesses, "life" is the life of the publication.

2. Copyrights include the ability to restrict "derivative works" which are generally defined as anything created based on the original work. A collage is a derivative work of lots of other works.

3. This means that you usually need the permission from each of the copyright holders to create derivative works.

But there's an interesting way around this (in my opinion). When you buy a published work, you are allowed to resell that work - you have the ability to dispose of what you purchased in this manner. What you absolutely CAN'T do is reproduce the work. So if you have purchased a pile of magazines, for example, cut them up, and create art from them... you shouldn't have a problem.

The creation of art also allows you a first step into a copyright exception called "fair use". It doesn't make it absolute, though (there are other factors).

Good luck.

Answer 2

You are indeed infringing on copyright should you try and sell your collages. You cannot cut ANYTHING from ANY magazine and re-sell it because it is already copyrighted by the publisher of the magazine. And I really hope you don't go ballistic over this answer because it seems that when one tells it like it is here on Yahoo, one gets the irate kids (I know you are in college but...) who, when they don't like an answer, either report you, name call, or throw toddler-type tantrums. Trust me, if you sell your work you will run into BIG trouble, at least if you are using previously copyrighted material which is what you are apparently planning on doing.

Answer 3

Technically you should see a lawyer.

But anything reproduced that has already had its copyright expired is OK.

Anything in which you radically change the appearance and context of the images is OK especially if you get the OK from the publisher, else their lawyers might, quite unethically, try to stop you. You have a right to a limited use of published material so long as it doesn't compromise (in effect reduce the sales) the copyright holder.

Alternatively if you face the situation front on and challenge the raison detre, the actual purpose and being of the magazine then they would have trouble in denying you your right to free speech!

Answer 4

As long as you are expressing your own opinion, you are fine. You should read an article written a long time ago called "Art in the Age of Reproduction." It was cutting edge theory when it was published. Now it's important reading for every artist, especially collage artists. You'll have to read it several times to understand it, the author, whose name I have forgotten, was a very intelligent man, and it's a dense article. A lawyer may be overkill for a student, but appropriate for a fast selling artist.

Answer 5

The first person is wrong. Copyrights never expire. You should seek to find what kinda copyrights the images hold. Usually pieces in magazines, and newspapers are fair use for ARTICLES, and nothing else.