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Artwork Used in Renders Copyright Question


kevinmcgowan
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Hey All,

 

I have a general question regarding the use of Artwork in renders of interiors etc. Say you have a piece of artwork hanging on the wall, does the artwork have to be royalty free?. If so, it seems very restrictive. Is there a time limit where artwork becomes public domain?. All in all I guess my question is, what are the boundries, if any?.

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But you're not implying the painting is yours, are you. I dare say if you chose to put one of my renderings into one of your interior renderings as an artwork, or printed it onto a t-shirt and wore it for that matter, then I probably wouldn't be aware of it in the first place, and if I did I probably wouldn't tell you to remove it. I know it's a contentious area though. If you were to set up a website selling those nifty t-shirts with my rendering on it then maybe that would be another matter! :)

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same goes for sculptures. If the artist or the entity holding the rights to the piece sees the sculpture and wants it removed, you will need to remove it. In terms of abstract art, it doesn't even need to be an exact duplication. As long as there are lawyers, this will be a concern so better safe than sorry.

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It's one of those one in a million chances. But yes, you cannot use an artist's work in your rendering without written permission. I had a job that had artwork commissioned from a local artist and in the contract was a specific clause that the artwork could only be used in this job. I could not use it anywhere else.

 

You want artwork for your walls? Grab your camera and go out and shoot various scenes and your family. You have all the artwork you need at your fignertips. Run some watercolor effects on past renderings, etc. This way, everything is of your own creation.

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you guys should have a deeper look into copyright laws in whichever country you are and take immediate action to secure your artworks. in uk you can register copyright for artwork for as little as £65 but if you're having employment contract or any contract work it should be part of it.

 

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

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

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Thanks for the feedback guys. Jeff I know you can't say the companies name but do you know anymore specifics?. I am assuming that you may run into problems if you use a very specific piece of artwork in a very high profile job. I think you are less likely to run into problems if you use a mass produced piece of artwork in a not so high profile job.

What I can't understand is if companies have run into problems with artwork copyright, surely other things such as furniture, cars etc are all subject to some sort of copyright as well?. Thanks again for the feedback.

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I'm betting things like furniture, while do carry copyrights, fall into a similar copyright loophole as architecture does. Specifically, "First, when a building is ordinarily visible from a public place, its protection as an "architectural work" does not include the right to prevent the making, distributing, or public display of pictures, photographs, or other pictorial representations of the work. Thus, the architect will not be able to prevent people from taking photographs or otherwise producing pictorial representations of the building." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_in_architecture_in_the_United_States under the rights granted section)

 

So the plans are protected, the building is protected, the design is protected, the structure is protected, but the photographic reproduction isn't necessarily protected as it is visible in public. However, your rendering that you did for the architect is covered by copyright law. Someone can't use your rendering as art in their rendering, but if they themselves took a picture of the building then it is okay to use in a rendering. Strange and confusing, I know.

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Thanks for the feedback guys. Jeff I know you can't say the companies name but do you know anymore specifics?. I am assuming that you may run into problems if you use a very specific piece of artwork in a very high profile job. I think you are less likely to run into problems if you use a mass produced piece of artwork in a not so high profile job.

What I can't understand is if companies have run into problems with artwork copyright, surely other things such as furniture, cars etc are all subject to some sort of copyright as well?. Thanks again for the feedback.

 

I can't go into to details but trust me any form of copying known artwork (popular or not) is going to get you into trouble if the original copyright owner sees it. The circumstances around one of the cases I know you would never have thought in a million years they would know or find out...they did and they won.

 

Regarding models etc, when I worked at ArchVision obviously all of their car content content was based around creating a commercial product around someone's copyrighted design. The lawyers felt it fell under fair use laws and they never had issues, however it wasn't too long ago that the makers of the iconic Kitchen Aid Mixer started going after online sellers of their model and there was a car manufacturer (I can't recall which one now) who did the same for one of their models.

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As for cars, if you notice on almost all of the collections, they do not include the logo. Similar to TV shows that don't want to pay the car company. Oh sure Mythbusters, we all know it's a Toyota but they put that little strip of black tape over the logo and BAM! generic car that just happens to look like a Toyota. Same thing probably applies for model collections. It sure looks like a Kitchen Aid appliance, but most of the smart companies will leave the logo and name off.

 

I think that's how they can get you on copyrights for things like cars and appliances. If you make a Ford Mustang, it's within reasonable expectations that the Mustang is a widely known design and is of public use. However, if you put the Ford logo, the Mustang Logo, or anything of that nature, then you are treading deep into copyright waters.

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Makes perfect sense Scott, I wonder if you change the art slightly in Photoshop whether that fits into the same parameters?. It resembles the artwork but it's not a perfect copy.

 

One other thing, do you guys have sites that you use to get artwork. I noticed Art.com allows you to buy prints but not digital usage rights like Istock. Does a website exist like istock for art?.

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