i'm a bit confused on this subject and my english is not that good to read all the legal stuff.

i wanted to know if i'm using a photo as a reference for a painting, not using the actual photo or tracing, do i still need to pay the owner of the photo for the copyright.

read about something i think was called "reference fee" but didn't understand what they said.

don't know if you guys know about this, i know there are some artists here....


thank you

As long as you are not purposely covering any water marks or copyright symbols, you are covered under "fair use". The best thing to do is give credit if needed just to cover your ass..... but this site can easily fall into the category of "parody" when using someone elses work. The supreme court has ruled on many occasions that parodies are covered under fair use....and parodies do not need to humorous. A court does recognize "irony" and "creativity" as parodies as well, and thats what we do here.

So, basically you are safe here. Giving credit isn't required under law, but does cover your ass, basically. I wouldn't worry about it really. If by chance an author comes by and sees something, like the post last week, you can either alter/remove the image.......or tell them to go get bent.

You may want to read about the problems Shepard Fairey encountered with his famous Obama image: http://articles.boston.com/2011-01-15/ae/29335296_1_shepard-fairey-obama-hope-obama-image. The last line of the linked article would concern me. You could argue that using a photo as a reference is fair use, but you might end up getting sued. Even if you were to win in court it could prove very costly.

Have you tried contacting the copyright holder? It wouldn't hurt to ask for permission. You might even get a simple, "Yes."


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That case is a little different though. He not only created the image for profit purposes, according to the article he lied about the original copyright owner. Nothing here is really "for profit" work.

And even so, he didn't actually lose the case.

actually i am talking about something i want to sell....



i've done that several times and got a few yeses and a few who never answered back, problem is it's not always clear who the real owner of the photo is.