No copyright

[DukeNukem]

I recently found some pictures of big game animals and turned one into a pattern today,My question is can you make patterns and call them your own if they have no copyright?



Jerry

[CanadianScroller]

That depends on the source of the pictures.
If the pictures are copyright free then yes you may.
If someone took the pictures and did not give you permission to use them , then no you may not.
It never hurts to fire away an email to a photographer and explain what you want to do.

There are also some great sites online with copyright free photos. You can also get copyright free photos on CD from many software stores. Just make sure you are not infringing on anyone by modifying.

I am sure with the proliferation of software and people attempting to make patterns that this will be an area that is closely watched.

[CanadianScroller]

Just to help you along
US Fish and Wildlife Service site has lots of free images, read the disclaimer first though

http://www.fws.gov/pictures/

[Minnesota scroller]

I may get berated for this, but if I find a photo online, and it has no copyright or message requiring permission to reuse the photo, and also does not have a credit to go with it, I'm not going to worry about it. Evidentally, if the photographer didn't bother to copyright it or even leave contact info, he really doesn't care what a person does with it. There are probably a million amateur photos online that a person posts just for fun or to show others. I have photos on Photobucket and Flickr and wunderground.com and couldn't care less what anyone wants to use them for. If I gave a crap, I'd protect them or at least accompany them with a warning and contact info.

Of course, I'm not going to mass produce anything either.

[DukeNukem]

Thanks Canadianscroller I will look into that.

Jerry

[Minnesota scroller]

Actually, you can go to flickr.com and do a search for photos. I searched for caribou and found thousands of photos. The majority of members choose to allow anyone to download their photos. It's one of the options when they join. It's just part of the fun of sharing photos.

[DukeNukem]

Thanks Mike ,I will look into it.

Jerry

[muzzleloader]

I'd be careful with flickr.com! I scrolled to the botom of the page and clicked the copyright policy link, it's too long to repeat it here, so here's the direct link to their views on copyrights: http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/details.html

muzzleloader

[BobD (Archive)]

To be brutally honest, a photo is copyrighted as soon as a photographer takes it. Even if they don't offer a statement outlining their copyright, it is still their copyright.

The way the law looks at it, a person's copyright is automatic and protected by the law. If someone offers the photos for free use (such as the Creative Commons photos on the Wikipedia, http://creativecommons.org/

But unless the copyright holder implicitly states that the images are available for people to use for free, the images are copyrighted and you CANNOT use them.

Bob

[jigsue]

HI

The Forum "Free Patterns by design" has loads of public domain image sites listed. (you may need to be a member) Their address is:

http://www.fpbd.proboards81.com/index.cgi

Sue

[Tor]

For making a pattern, I would also look at the "genericness" of the image. For example, I wouldn't worry about taking a common forest bird on a branch out of an image for a pattern. A flight shot of the same bird might well merit contacting the photographer. One is what nearly everyone who has taken a picture of the bird with a good camera has, while the other may require extensive patience with an excellent camera.

BTW Bob, you may wish to change "implicitly" to "explicitly" in the last paragraph.

Tor

[SNAPPER]

Copyright

I did a little reading on the copyright laws (wow what alot of info), Bob is right. Copyright law protects the "original work of authorship". Copyrightable works include but not limited to: pictoral,graphic and sculptoral works. I agree with Minnesota and Canadian scroller, if you do not want your piece copied or reproduced then it should be stated so. Either way permission or not it should be indicated. You know what the word "assume" stands for. I am not out to break any laws, but how many people agree with or abide by every "law".
Dean

[lucky788scroller]

Just remember, ignorance is no excuse. If you arent sure, investigate, or erradicate. Save yourself the headaches. Dale

[chrispuzzle]

I agree with Minnesota and Canadian scroller, if you do not want your piece copied or reproduced then it should be stated so.

Your scrollsaw belongs to you, whether you register it or not. So do your photographs and original artwork.

The point of copyright registration is to provide a simple way to prove that a work is yours if you have to go to court.

If you intend to sell a piece of work you really do need to pay some attention to securing the source for the design. You don't know if the flickr photographer is a litigious maniac or just an easy-going guy who is going to be flattered. He has the law on his side though - you know the pictures belong to him by default.

Obviously there's a point where, with a hobby, people take a view as to the risk involved with out of print material or Internet pictures. Personally, for my puzzles, I would feel very queasy about using the work of an amateur photographer on Flickr without permission: this is a living person with an email address you can write to. I am far less queasy about using images of old paintings by dead artists even if the galleries that own them protect their rights quite jealously. But even so, if it ain't legal, no amount of wishing will make it so.

[Shannon]

Another thing you have to be aware of... Just because the photo posted on the internet does not have the photographer's name or copyright information - it doesn't even mean that the original photographer is the one who posted that particular image! It's so easy to copy and paste an image from any website - post it somewhere else - and never mention the original source or artist.

It sure is a slippery slope - public domain images are your best bet.