Copyright Law: a brief explanation for artists

As a collage artist I am always in fear of using artwork from magazines (a big source of my collaging material) for fear of being sued. And therefore, I am always on the lookout for good sources of "public domain" images. If you are just creating collage art solely for your own personal healing, then you don't need to worry too much about this. (Although if you want to post your artwork on the internet to share with others, you would need to be careful.) So its important to know the difference between copyright images and public domain images, and to know what you're using in your collages.

Collage artwork and copyright infringement 
If an artist uses a copyrighted image of another artist in their collage, without their permission, they can be subject to a lawsuit. Therefore, if they are creating original collage artwork by using artwork (or parts ofartwork) by other artists (including art, clipart, photos, illustrations, patterns, magazines, ect.), they must know which ones are in the public domain. In the U.S., any work published before January 1, 1923 anywhere in the world is considered in the public domain: meaning that the copyright on it has expired (or never was) andcan be used by anyone and in anyway.

It's something to be very aware of when creating artwork if you ever intend to show it, even if only on the intenet. Or maybe, especially if on the interent, since the whole world would have access to it.

But with the massive amounts of Public Domain artwork out there, you should be able to find plenty of interesting and beautiful pieces of artwork, backgrounds, textures, and images to work with.



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