Wednesday 1 July 2009

Copyright and Frankenstein

Generally when I create something new it is out of a need that I have. I started playing around with an idea last night for a little notepad that can go in your back pocket or in your handbag when you go out. You always look for paper to write things down on. But of course in true Konstant Kaos style, it needs to be a bit quirky.

So I had a play with a colour printer, laminator and my sewing machine and voila!



My only problem is Copyright. I do not wish to be one of *those* crafters that breaks copyright.

So my question to the blog world is, how do I go about finding out who owns the copyright for this image? It is such a lovely image, I would love to do more with it!

4 comments:

Beky said...

I spoke to my Aunty about this one who is an illustrator and also works in the publishing industry. To her knowledge (would need to check). If the person has been dead for 50 years on then it's copyright free. I mentioned to her that many people use covers of patterns etc. There would be copyright with the company and then the illustrator. Anyway this would all need to be checked. I once worked for the copyright section at the Herald Sun, it can be messy. There are different laws for different countries etc etc. As I said can be messy.

Jodie said...

Copyright is a minefield. I would say, if that is an advertising poster than copyright lies with the illustrator / publisher of the image. If that info is on the poster then that would be a good start......
It is a great image !

Jennie said...

It's easy enough when one uses an image from a calendar or greeting card, because of course it'll say who the publisher is and who the copyright belongs to. But when one finds a great image online which some random person has found/scanned from an unknown source, who knows where it came from?

I have a friend who's just started working as a permissions assistant for a DVD distribution company. I'll ask her what databases/companies they buy images from - there's got to be a film equivalent of Corbis.

Jennie said...

Here's a backwards engineering idea - go to a site like allposters.com and see if you can find a poster of the same (or similar) picture. Maybe the site will say who the publisher is.