One more time, the copyright rant....

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on September 26, 1999 at 01:00:17:

In Reply to: Using books for patterns posted by MyST on September 25, 1999 at 23:27:08:

My first encounter with illustrations and copyright law was 1962, and
I've been back and forth with it a whole lot, as that's how I've made
my living since.

Here's what you absolutely cannot do: take someone's photograph and
pretend its your own, or take someone's original drawing (or
reproduction of it) and pretend it's your own. If you grab a chunk of
somone else's website and put it into yours (even if you don't pretend
its your own) without getting specific permission to do so...you suck;
and you're doing something illegal.

HOWEVER....things become much looser legally when you're doing
freehand work. If someone draws a pattern (on paper or with a paint
program) and you copy it (with some inevitable modifications) onto
someone's hand in henna....you are legally home free. The HENNA is
YOUR work! (All you can copyright, legally, of that effort, would be
your photograph of it.)

I don't put my name on my pages of henna patterns...because I just
don't want my name cluttering up your worksite. YOU'RE the one with
the henna cone in your hand, doing the work. It's your show. I don't
expect you'll really knock out my patterns, or anyone elses, line for
line, anyway. You're not a robot. You must have some aesthetic sense
and judgement, or you'd be using stencils. Just don't put anything in
your flash book that you can't actually do....you'll embarass
yourself.

Now....If you want to be really cool...just don't make a habit of
photographing things that you've just copied out of someone elses
flash, and filling up your website with them. Do whatever your
clients want on the job...out of your eclectic accumulation of
flash..it's their nickle after all. When you are showcasing your
work...original shows a little more class.

Follow-ups:

• flash Natasha Papousek 17:08:39 9/27/99 (3)
  • Re: flash MyST 18:36:32 9/27/99 (0)
  • Re: flash Catherine Cartwright Jones 18:28:18 9/27/99 (1)
    • Berber patterns Kathy 18:46:05 9/28/99 (0)