I’m not going to lie, copyright is a tricky one. The good news is that the answer to most copyright questions is incredibly simple but before we get to that, let’s quickly chat about why you have to know about copyright in today’s art world.
Did you notice that I said ‘have’ and not ‘need’? This isn’t a part of being creative that you can opt out of, no matter what your proficiency level you have to know what you can copy, what you can’t copy and the very grey and misty areas that lurk in between. Let’s get back to that very simple question regarding the answer to most copyright queries - here it goes then:
And the answer is? Nope.
Sorry, that might come as a shock to some of you and it’s usually followed by ‘but’ with the following list of reasons:
‘As long as I change more than 10/20/99 (this number is variable)% then it’s okay’
No, that’s not true. There is something known as a ‘fair use’ policy in copyright legalise but it always comes down to intent, if you intended to copy it then it doesn’t matter how much you change, the original remains with the person who created it and unless you obtain written permission from the creator, you have no right to copy it.‘Facebook owns all the images that are placed there’ OR ‘Once it’s on the internet it’s in the public domain’
No, that isn’t correct. Facebook obtains the right to publish anything you place on its platform for marketing purposes but you sign up for that when you join. That doesn’t give you the right to copy something someone else has posted without their permission.
If everything on the internet was in the public domain, we’d be in huge amounts of trouble with plagiarism, performing rights, intellectual property…etc.‘No one will ever know’
Here we hit a snag as this is more a moral consideration and then it’s down to your own internal compass. Try to think of it this way instead - a professional photographer earns a living by investing in their equipment, time and skills by taking a photograph. To copy their photograph without permission is denying them the opportunity to get recompense for their expertise. Will they ever know that you have copied their photograph? Probably not so let’s think of it another way. You create a painting from a photograph you didn’t take and suddenly you get lots of recognition for a fantastic piece of artwork and are asked if it can be featured in a painting magazine. You are either going to have to turn down that opportunity or you are going to get found out and then, very probably taken to court.‘Even if I do get found out, no one will follow it through’
Not true. If you are interested read this article regarding how artists have been sued for large amounts of money over copyright infringement.
(Article written by Kaitlyn Ellison for 99 designs.co.uk)
Am I being harsh about this? Yes! Am I apologetic about this? No! I’m sorry that this might be news and you could be having a cold sweat right now thinking back to times when you didn’t realise what you were doing. We have all been there, we didn’t know any better but the brilliant fact is that now you do and will be better informed in the future.
Don’t be daft. There are so many things you can do to help yourself and all of them guilt free:
Ask permission from the photographer.
Spend some time tracking down the photographer and emailing them to ask for permission. Explain what it is you would like to do and where the final product is going to end up. I have never had a photographer say no and usually they are very grateful for the professional courtesy and are interested in a fellow creative. I made some wonderful creative partnerships that way.Do your research.
Assume that you can’t use something and go from there to prove that you can, not the other way around.
Learn about Creative Commons licenses, it’s useful information.
Start with this, it helps you to understand things better. (Taken from https://creativecommons.org)Use a site that allows you to use photographs such a Pixabay BUT!!! You still need to do your homework with these sites, it’s not free reign to download everything left, right and centre just a little easier than others.
My last piece of advice is to know the difference between copying something and gathering inspiration. Sites such as Pinterest are great for assimilating great swathes of inspiration, just don’t take one individual element and assume that it’s fine to follow it to the letter.
In terms of what we do as art tutors, I can only speak for myself and the things that I ask of the people I teach, here are the rules that I ask my students and clients to follow:
I’m thrilled that you like my work enough to want to test out the techniques that I use when I share them with you. If you see a painting I have done and I haven’t described how I’ve painted it, I either don’t want to divulge it or haven’t got to the bottom of the technique yet so please don’t copy it.
Most of the time I’m fairly lovely (my husband may say different), but if I find you teaching a derivative version of a tutorial that I have spent hours putting together, you and I are going to have a very long conversation and it won’t end well. Please don’t put me in that position.
I sign contracts with all sorts of companies where I’m not the only person to have the copyright on the work for example books, magazines and DVDs. They have different sorts of copyright over the images that are shown and the text that is written, you may need to do your homework about these too.
If you have used one of my taught sessions (free or paid for) to create a piece of work and you would like to do something specific with that painting, please just email me to ask. I’ll be thrilled that you bothered and will probably simply ask you to say ‘from a tutorial by Alison C. Board’ wherever it is going to be seen. Advertising isn’t cheap and you doing that will help me out enormously.
Please don’t bring photographs that aren’t copyright free to my sessions, it reflects very badly on me and I won’t let you use them. Not because I’m standing on my soapbox but because if I let you do it then I will be a complete hypocrite and my livelihood is at stake here.
Thank you for getting to the bottom of this, it’s a tough thing to get your head around I do realise that, but I hope the information I have imparted is received with the humour and enthusiasm with which it was intended.
If you or your art group would like to know more about this aspect of art, I do a very interactive presentation all about it that educates people to question their sources while injecting a bit of humour into such a dry subject. If you think your group might be interested then please get in touch via downendfarmstudio@gmail.com and I will be only too happy to help.
Over to the rest of the ADD team now to see what their thoughts on the subject are…
Take care, Ali B