Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss
A painting does not come with a copyright. Nor do many other types of intellectual property, yet the owner has rights to enforce its non-use and to license its use.
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Actually, all creative works have an automatic copyright, called a common law copyright, but to qualify for the draconian protections of the Federal law you have to register the work in DC. Otherwise, you literally do not have the right to exploit the painting, unless the artist has sold you the copyright, it has passed into the public domain, or the use you want to make of it constitutes a fair use of the painting. You may be thinking about an artist's right to produce an image with independent artistic merit of an otherwise copyrighted item (like Warhol's Campbell's soup cans), but you do not have the right to simply take a picture of a card and produce reprints or license others to create reprint cards. Here is a fun read on the subject of a sexualized Barbie parody:
https://www.rcfp.org/artistic-photos...ate-copyright/
The Copyright Act limits the rights of a copyright owner regarding works that build upon, reinterpret, and reconceive existing works. ... The factors are "to be explored, and the results weighed together, in light of the purposes of copyright." Id. at 578, 114 S.Ct. 1164. Depending on the particular facts, some factors may weigh more heavily than others. Id. at 577-79, 114 S.Ct. 1164. The four factors we consider are: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Dr. Seuss, 109 F.3d at 1399-1404 (analyzing and applying 17 U.S.C. § 107)."
Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Productions, 353 F.3d 792 (2003)