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[Anne Torda]

Is there ever a time when you can legally copy from copywrited Art material; i.e. greeting cards, AZ Highways magazine, etc., calendars.  We have a few Artists in our Art Club who can't take photos of their own, so they copy from these resources.  We are having a big stink on this as the judge at our recent show panned the copied paintings.  I'm giving a talk on this to them.  Can you give me some info.  Do they have to paint their own original work or use photos in other words?

Thank you!

Anne Torda

[Isaac]

I think copying in the setting you describe would raise the question of copyright infringement as well as a question of plagiarism.  The plagiarism question would exist even if you copied from the pictures with permission.

[JSonnabend]

If you're talking about painting copies of works for educational purposes, I believe there is an exception for that (i.e., for those people you see in art museums standing in front of this work or that with an easel and paints).  If you're talking about photographs, I'm not sure that I follow.

What is being copied and for what purpose/use?

- Jeff

[Anne Torda]

The situation in question on copying copywrited material is not an educational one.  This is a retirement community and we belong to an Art Assoc. and display our paintings at Art Shows and are judged for ribbons the day before.  Many of these artists are now copying copywrited material rather than take art classes where money is involved, but I don't think they really understand what copywrited material is and that it is evidently plagiarism to do this.  My job is going to be to educate them on this and steer them in another direction which they aren't going to like.  Any help will be welcomed.  The fine artists want them to use photographs, which they don't possess, to paint from instead of copywrited material.

Thank you.

Anne Torda

[Terry McManus]

If you are copying from a copyrighted work, then your work is a "derivative" and needs to be cleared with the copyright holder. That being said, if one of the artists paints a picture of some mountains from a photograph, for their own use, that would be a matter most courts would not take up. However, if the painting was a copy of an orginal painting or a reworked photograph that gave it unique intellectual character, then there would be a problem; especially with public exhibition.

If your friends were in a school and in an art class, then they could copy any material they wanted for educational purposes and it could be used as part of their portfolio as long as there was no commercial value to their copies.

It sounds to me as if the art judge in this case has a problem with the new artists borrowing a "perspective" created by another artist rather than the legal side of the question. If the painting is meant to show simply technical skill, then it should not be a problem. If however the paintings are being judged on the artist's "perspective" and interpretation as well as the technical ability, then I would agree with the art judge and say you must create something unique.

[Anne Torda]

Thank you so much Isaac, Jeff and Terry M.  You're answeres were very helpful and what I expected.  This helps me formulate my speech to my friends and perhaps get them started back into Art Classes that we had before the copying started.

Anne Torda