Using someone else's scans/ photos

[comix4fun]

Man, there is some bad legal advice being rendered here. I'll sit back and wait for the IP lawyers to tell you that it's technically using someone else's intellectual property, but that the risks for doing so are small. That is assuming one doesn't file a DMCA takedown notice.

 

 

 

I agree. The only way to be safe, legally, is to create an animated gif reenacting the scenes featured on the cover of the comic you are selling with you and your friends playing the key roles....and use that as your image.

 

Make sure they each sign a standard photography & video release form for their likenesses.

 

You're welcome....

I knew it was something like that.

 

 

I learnt that in my CLE class last year "Performance Art as a Bar to All IP Claims™"

[Transplant]

I have to ask. What, pray tell, is the purported 'intellectual property' in a scan of a comic book, provided the scan wasn't taken by the comic book creator?

 

Do you own your picture of something else? Are there restrictions on the subject matter of your scans/picture/artistic renderings, that would make it available for public use? If you take a picture of something you sell to someone else, do you also transfer the right to that picture?

 

Note: I don't argue that you can take a picture of copyrighted material and start printing hats and mugs with abandon.

[grebal]

I learnt that in my CLE class last year "Performance Art as a Bar to All IP Claims™"

 

Well, at least that Continuing Ed served *some* function.

 

Did it provide any guidance on whether it's ok to portray the Invisible Girl with just strings?

[namisgr]

I have to ask. What, pray tell, is the purported 'intellectual property' in a scan of a comic book, provided the scan wasn't taken by the comic book creator?

 

Do you own your picture of something else? Are there restrictions on the subject matter of your scans/picture/artistic renderings, that would make it available for public use? If you take a picture of something you sell to someone else, do you also transfer the right to that picture?

 

Note: I don't argue that you can take a picture of copyrighted material and start printing hats and mugs with abandon.

 

You 'answered' my question with a bunch of questions.

 

The issue of ownership would seem on the surface to me to be different than the issue of having made an intellectual contribution to a comic book scan to take it above the bar for intellectual property. Anyways, this is a divergence from the main thread topic, methinks.

 

 

[CBT]

I have to ask. What, pray tell, is the purported 'intellectual property' in a scan of a comic book, provided the scan wasn't taken by the comic book creator?

 

Do you own your picture of something else? Are there restrictions on the subject matter of your scans/picture/artistic renderings, that would make it available for public use? If you take a picture of something you sell to someone else, do you also transfer the right to that picture?

 

Note: I don't argue that you can take a picture of copyrighted material and start printing hats and mugs with abandon.

 

Not much of that relates to how most are using these images. Anyone is free to post an embedded url image to an auction site's publicly available pictures, regardless of all the other issues mentioned. If they download it, and rehost it, then some of this stuff might start to come into play.

[Robot Man]

Once you have paid for a received the book you are the owner of it but not necessarily the seller's photo. Most sellers wouldn't mind you using it if you asked politely. I usually dump my photos right away once the item is sold.

 

At a show when I am selling other collectibles, I often get people who have no intention buying try to take pictures of my items. If I see it going one, I remind them that it is merely polite to ask first.

[the blob]

I have to ask. What, pray tell, is the purported 'intellectual property' in a scan of a comic book, provided the scan wasn't taken by the comic book creator?

 

Do you own your picture of something else? Are there restrictions on the subject matter of your scans/picture/artistic renderings, that would make it available for public use? If you take a picture of something you sell to someone else, do you also transfer the right to that picture?

 

Note: I don't argue that you can take a picture of copyrighted material and start printing hats and mugs with abandon.

 

Maybe I am missing something, but I refreshed myself on what constitutes a "derivative work" that gets copyright protection, and snapping a picture of someone else's copyright protected material does not. You've added nothing to it, you've added nothing original. The subject matter (the comic cover, the art) is copyright protected and owned by someone else. Maybe an argument can be made that how you work with the lighting adds the element of originality to it, but that's pushing it.

 

This is not taking a picture of something that is not someone else copyright protected material. Like a tree. Or your friends. Or a mountain. Then you do own copyright rights in it.

 

Or even perhaps a group shot of multiple covers. Maybe you've added something to it in how you arranged them, your choices, etc. That might be enough.

 

I think Marvel can't sue you for using the image of the cover of Hulk 181 to sell that Hulk 181 because there is probably an exception for a photo of something you own. I'm blanking on what it's called. I'd call it "fair use," but that usually comes up in the context of teaching materials. Don't quote me on that though.

 

[Disclaimer: Don't rely on anything I say. I am not your lawyer. I am likely not licensed in your jurisdiction. It has been 5 years since I litigated a copyright case.]