Fair Use

[hotshot]

I don't have raw artistic talent, but I can sure use images.google.com to find something interesting and with photoshop transform it to patterns at will.  I've looked at the fair use doctrine and there is a mention of allowance for transformative works.  I'm not sure what that means.

With that said, I'm not selling patterns or financially gaining from any of this stuff.

How do you interpret fair use in regards to creating patterns from images.google.com or other image sources.

--------Randy

[spirithorse]

Here's a quick quote from Wikipedia.

Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test.

God Bless! Spirithorse

[jrpeteo]

I think what all that legal mumbo-jumbo means is that you can talk about it, but don't duplicate it. 
Pete

[hotshot]

The part that strikes me most interesting is the:  "incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test"

FACTOR 1: What is the character of the use?
In the first balance test, there are certain attributes that make the balance swing to the OK side (personal use, non-profit, educational) and one specific attribute which is "commercial" that makes it swing to the not OK side.


FACTOR 2: What is the nature of the work to be used?  Unpublished weighs against fair use.  Fact base works weigh towards fair use more than fiction.  Photograph I would consider fact based, but a drawing/painting would be more creative, which unfortunately, weigh against fair use.  


FACTOR 3: How much of the work will you use?  Using a smaller amount within a larger work would favor fair use.


FACTOR 4: If this kind of use were widespread, what effect would it have on the market for the original or for permissions?
I don't think scroll saw project would have any effect on the value of the original work regardless of how many in our community did this.  (unless the art in question was sold as a pattern or scroll saw project)


For those of use that do not sell our work, regardless of the Fair Use, there would be low visibility and little financial incentive for anyone to take us to task for it.  For those that do sell, it gets a lot trickier in that you are making financial gain on someone else's effort.  Still, I think the scale of delivery would be so small that is would not draw the attention of the original artists.

I think if I were to sale patterns or projects, I would seek out images that are already free.  For subjects that are not available for free, I would purchase a royalty free version from one of the many available sources.  If you can re-use the image for projects which are sold over and over, the price per project for purchasing that right would be pretty low.

-Randy

[crupiea]

I have always wondered how this applies to tattoos.

Lots of people have disney or star wars tattoos and they paid money for them but the parent company got nothing.  Clearly the tattoo artist made a profit.

[EIEIO]

The short form is that Fair Use allows the use of copyright-protected material if your use would not interfere with the profit potential for the copyright owner. You must credit the copyright owner if it is shown to the public.   

I don't think you could render a pattern without at some point copying (and pasting) the original or posted copy of the work, but that would not intercept any profits. But I wonder if the courts would consider the scroll saw as a form of a "copy machine". I think a laser cutter would be considered similar to a xerox copier and would be prohibited (close similarity to the original and potential for large production runs).   

[puzzleguy]

something to consider :


You could work on your own designs ( not as hard as you think )
would not conflict with any copyright -its also allot of fun to be the originator
of a piece of work !