Category: Art

Man holding a camera at his side

Art Imitating Life Captured in Photos: Fair Use?

Art imitates life, or so they say, but when does art imitating life as captured in a photo become copyright infringement? I was a college newspaper editor when Kurt Cobain died. (This dates me, I know!) To commemorate Cobain, we published a pencil-sketch our staff artist modeled after a photo from one of Cobain’s albums. Had I been lawyer-Amy back then rather than journalism-student Amy, I might have warned, “Not so fast.”

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Messy office

Creative Commons Licenses: Copyleft or Copyright?

I was recently introduced to the world of design-based business owners when I wrote an article on copyright tips for the popular design blog Design*Sponge. What a nice bunch of folks — the comments were so kind that I’ve considered feigning artistic talent to join their circle. In response to my conservative lawyerly advice to “get a license or don’t copy!,” at least one designer asked: But what about Creative Commons licenses? “People share ideas, sometimes even to the extent of showing how they make their craft. This sharing enriches all of us. I always come back to where would Bob Dylan and all of the great folk singers be if they had not shared and built on one another’s work.”

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Go Forth and Create (and Police)

Law.com recently posted an article in which Sarah Feingold, in-house counsel for the popular e-commerce site, Etsy, talked about her own creative background, the legal issues Etsy and its users face, and the protection Etsy affords its users.

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