Tracing and copyright

[Lounge]

Does anyone around here know how it is with tracing images, do they loose their copyright, and become a new artpiece or?

I am making an animal idfentification program, and I am tracing all images in illustrator.

Hope you can help, or maybe guide me to a site on the subject thats for normal people to understand.

:book:

[dr_vroeg]

I think you will need to explain yourself a little more.

for example if I took the mac/apple logo and traced it in illustrator, would it still be copyrighted?.... the answer to this is yes. You are still copying.

[Lounge]

Well I am just making overlay drawings of animals from an animal photobook, so the detail is not fantastic. I basically just have one layer with the photo, and then sketch on another layer.

I just wonder if thats ok with the copyright holder of the photos?

Dont know if that made more sense :stunned:

Check out the fish in my intromovie at http://ultrafishy.com for example

[Pasquale]

Ah well that SHOULD be ok i guess

[dr_zeus]

Technically, tracing images is still copyright infringement. In general, you're probably pretty safe though. However, I would recommend using stock images as your tracing sources. There are many sites on the net with free images that can be used by anyone, and then you don't have to worry about it.

[bwh2]

hmm. i would think that would fall under derivative works (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work).

A typical example of a derivative work received for registration in the Copyright Office is one that is primarily a new work but incorporates some previously published material. This previously published material makes the work a derivative work under the copyright law.

To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a "new work" or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be original and copyrightable in itself. Titles, short phrases, and format, for example, are not copyrightable.

WHO MAY PREPARE A DERIVATIVE WORK? Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. The owner is generally the author or someone who has obtained rights from the author.
i'm not positive, just throwing that out there because it seems reasonable.

[unclesond]

are we talking a tracing stlye similar to that of yor website?

If so are you tracing from decent proper photographs? Then I don't think there is a problem, there are millions of picutres of animals, if you drew an animal by hand with no reference, chances are someone has taken a photo with a copyright that could have been used to trace it. Its such a over photographed area, and the crab on ure site could have been traced from 1000s of crab photos.

Also is the program your making going to be sold? If it is then you perhaps should go through the right channels, but if its just a reference thing free online, then i seriously doubt the photographer would ever know you traced their image.

I'm not saying its legal, just chances are no one will notice or care.

But the idea about stock photos would be a safer way to go

[iLikePie]

search the forums and you'll find a few discussions on the topic. There's little concrete legal advice but most people seem to agree that you're unlikely to face any consequences.

[Lounge]

Great to get a little wiser(or a lot more stupid) Those damn copyrights are so unclear.

[dr_vroeg]

come to think of it...is this for profit? i mean, you would look pretty silly going through all of this if it was just for class (unless they had a defamation clause (which I doubt))

[unclesond]

I often use photos from Flickr, most photos will have a licence applied, so its easy to see what can be done with image. If its protected from alteration/modification just write a message to the owner, explain what you want to do, offer them credit. If its non profit, 9 out of 10 would be happy for you to do it, especially as you asked and didn't just take. Most people apprieciate it a lot more if you ask them first, a lot feel honoured that you want to use their picture.

If they don't want you to use it, then there are 10000000s of other photos of animals on there