Would this be Copyright Infringement?

A while back I posted this pic in a carving progress post. Was it a no-no? As you can see, the BOT™ is clearly shown on the table. What if a picture was posted of someone's living room with a coffee table book lying open on the table? Would that be copyright infringement?

Why do I ask, you say? I am thinking of doing a replica piece and would like to post a digital pic of a picture from an old polynesian artifacts book to show what it is I will be carving.

Any copyright experts out there?

A-A

(Note that I will be glad to delete this pic if anyone objects. Don't sue me, BigBro!!)

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2009-06-05 18:32 ]

Hey, mahalo C&A!

Aaron,

Under the doctrine of "fair use," you are okay.

From Wikipedia:

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. It is based on free speech rights provided by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The term "fair use" is unique to the United States; a similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.

Full article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

On 2006-07-12 22:04, Aaron's Akua wrote: would like to post a digital pic of a picture from an old polynesian artifacts book to show what it is I will be carving.

Copyright implies the author of a book has exclusive rights to copy their own material, If you are not the author of a book, and you post pics FROM that book, that may very easily fall under applicable copyright laws.
Regardless of whether you are trying to sell your carving or not.

An author of a book may feel it is a dilution of their copyrighted work to see images from their publication used elsewhere.
If someone opens a book that contained an image you used, they may justifiably argue this dilutes their creative work, as a reader may say; "hey. i saw that pic aready with Aaron's carving. This is nothing new."

reminds me of the plethora of "Polynesian Pop" imagery on too many things nowadays "borrowed" in like manner from many tiki publications available everywhere. Old tiki graphics on women's purses, dresses, on aloha shirts, t shirts, greeting cards, poscards....
Like Heimann's hula Honeys collection.
All that stuff is now everywhere.. He took the time to collect old collectables and publish it. ('tho some may say one or two of those should not have been used in that manner in his book...) Now all and sundry use it for source material.
Just cus it's easy to do, don't make it right.

I got me a certified LA, downtown, high-rise, intellectual properties lawyer.

If you want to pay the 1,320 dollars per word that he charges for his utterances, you can rent him too.

His gem of advice to me is... "If you're not making any money off of it, no one cares. If you start making money - then it's going to get looked into."

I don't know about the moral implications of using it but it sure looks cool.
Makes that tiki look 8 feet tall.

BigBro told me he doesn't mind carvers using images from his book.
Leroy and Bob are pretty cool about it too.

On 2006-07-15 16:52, pablus wrote:
His gem of advice to me is... "If you're not making any money off of it, no one cares. If you start making money - then it's going to get looked into."

how much per word?!
classic scene. yer being reamed by the legal ream machine.

that is one lawyer's take on it. others have said different. and of course, it entirely depends on the copyright holder. And how they may feel about their work being disseminated, either in print or electronically to the potential thousands or even millions, via the internet...
One lawyer is, of course, in absolutely no position to assume, think, or have intimate knowledge what any and every book author or web site artist/owner in the world, thinks in their own mind. And what that copyright holder then decides to do to protect their work.

and someone "saying" they don't mind their thing being used in another's work, is heard often. And everytime it reminds me of a certain restaurant chain owned by a certain couple of ladies i used to sell decor to. They asked a certain birdbrain if they could use his song title for their restaurant chain. And he said sure, go ahead. I don't mind. and then of course years later, his lawyers went after the aforementioned wimmen and sued to get his song title back so HE... could capitolize on his phrase he gave to them for their use.
I ain't sayin anyone here would act like this. Just employ the age old lesson: Cover Yo Ass.

[ Edited by: lanikai 2006-07-15 17:59 ]

Thanks Chip & Andy, Satan's Sin, lanikai, Pablus, & Jungle Trader for the insight.

Just to clear things up, Jungle Trader is correct and I did talk to Sven, Leroy, and Bob about doing a replica of Leroy's awesome tiki on page 242 of the BOT before I got started carving:

On 2004-11-20 22:08, Aaron's Akua wrote:

I owe a favor to my friend Randy. Repayment will be in the form of this tiki carving. I gave him my copy of the BOT, and this is the carving that he picked. I really love this tiki... It just seems to leap off the page. So, to keep it on the "up & up", I asked permission from both Sven and Leroy. Here's their responses.

**From Sven: "Please, go ahead, I see the whole Book of Tiki as a blueprint for the Tiki revival."

From Leroy via Bob van Oosting: "Aloha Aaron. I talked to LeRoy this morning and he said it's fine with him. It's available for all to copy---enjoy! Bob."
**
So, with Sven and Leroy's approval, I got started...

Yeah, that's how cool these guys are.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My original question was regarding a tiki I am starting that would use some pictures in "Arts of the South Seas" (published in 1946) as inspiration material. I'd like to post a photo or two of some of the pages/pictures in the book as part of a carving progress post, but only if it does not violate copyright laws to do so.

"Arts of the South Seas" is mentioned in the BOT as a book that inspired many tiki artists back in the tiki heyday, including Barney West. The Trader Vic's logo was also copied straight out of this book.

Even as I write this, I just noticed that Sven has a full color copy of the cover of "Arts of the South Seas" shown on page 247 of the BOT, so maybe I will just ask him about it.

Thanks again!

A-A

On 2006-07-17 12:45, Aaron's Akua wrote: "Arts of the South Seas" (published in 1946) as inspiration material. I'd like to post a photo or two of some of the pages/pictures in the book as part of a carving progress post, but only if it does not violate copyright laws to do so.

again, depends on how you want to look at it. This publicaton has been repirinted a few times since '46.
You could go ahead and do it, as, in the words of some: "It is easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission..."
or you could consider it fair use in that you are using it as "use for scholarship or review"... If that is how you use it.
But copying a book's content and saying "hey, looka dis" when the publisher would prefer to see their book sold rather disseminated online... well... I'd simply refer to the book and the page number.

What is it in the book that you are using for source material? Is it an artifact or a modern piece?

edit: Nevermind, I didn't read your first post again. I'm pretty sure posting a single image to show where you got your design inspiration from would be fair use.

[ Edited by: Paipo 2006-07-17 14:17 ]