[Clipart] Check these images? Is this legal?

[Jon Phillips]

Glen Turner wrote:
> Jon Phillips wrote:
> 
>> I have just submitted some images for the month's black history theme. 
>> I basically took very public images from google image search and 
>> vectorized them. I wanted to see A.) how they look and B.) if this is 
>> legal for me to do and them put them into the copyright.
>>
>> I only put up 5 for now, and if you all think that it is pushing 
>> copyright law, then let them be stricken.
> 
> 
> I had a quick look and they seem to be automated transformations of
> photographs.  So they are derived works of the photographs, so the
> copyright holder holds rights over the dervied works too.

Yes, they are...

>> An artist is able to take a work and alter it, or frame a piece of it 
>> and then duplicate that work as long as the original is abstracted.
> 
> 
> That's not what the law says.  In the case of abstract art you've
> got an image that whilst recognisable as another person's work
> is not a reproduction or a derived work (because of the artistry
> and effort in creating the abstract work).

right...


>> If these are in violation of copyright, then I think I will have to 
>> find a method that is more abstractionistic. Maybe clip out the 
>> backgrounds, and then trace the figures...ugh...that would take a lot 
>> of time.
> 
> 
> What you need to do is to create your own work, rather than make
> a simple transformation of other people's.
> 
> Perhaps you could ring the MLK Historic Site in Atlanta, explain
> what you are doing, and ask if they have suitable images. For
> example, they may have been gifted photographs which they can
> make available to you.
> 
> You might want to find the US equivalent to the following
>   http://www.copyright.org.au/page3.htm
> especially information sheets G33, G86, G79, G75, G35.


You know...public images commissioned by the US government are public 
domain, so those could be converted trouble free. There has to be some of 
those out there of various black history....

So, without further adieu, here are places to get public domain images from 
the US government:

http://www.loc.gov/

For a place to find public domain maps, check this:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Mapmaking_Expedition
There are already vector-based maps, which could easily be converted to 
SVG. They are preferring SVG for this project, so they might already have a 
great repository of maps. Should we duplicate efforts, or work with them?

Ah man, I just found the mother load of files on African-American history 
at the library of congress: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/082_slave.html

Okay, I put up a bunch of links on where to find public domain images from 
the US Government. Do other countries have a similar way of releasing 
images into the public domain that were taken with public funds? Man, a lot 
of these could be used as base material for vectorization and abstraction. 
That is legal, right?

http://openclipart.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SimilarProjects

Jon


-- 
Jon Phillips

USA PH 510.499.0894
jon at rejon.org
http://www.rejon.org

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