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cc-licenses - Re: digital copy of a physical work and the selling of that physical work

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Subject: Development of Creative Commons licenses

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  • From: Sal Randolph <sal AT highlala.com>
  • To: Discussion on the Creative Commons license drafts <cc-licenses AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: digital copy of a physical work and the selling of that physical work
  • Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 00:42:21 -0500

I'm definitely not a lawyer, so take this with a giant grain of salt.

It's my understanding that in the case of something like a painting, it's the artist who retains the reproduction rights when the painting is sold (unless, I suppose, specific arrangements such as licensing are made).

I know there are a number of books specifically written to give basic legal advice to visual artists, so you might start by picking one up. And also, many areas have some kind of group like New York's Volunteer Lawyer's for the Arts, where lawyers can provide you with some free consultation one-on-one and in group seminars.

In general, though, this list isn't really intended be a forum for legal advice, professionally competent or otherwise. I'm wondering if it might be time for CC or someone to set up a public user forum for these kinds of questions, which do come up pretty often.

-- Sal


On Mar 27, 2004, at 12:04 AM, Stephen Woodward wrote:

I will probably be best served consulting a lawyer on this, but thought I would run by everyone out there.
I think the big question I am looking for the answer to is; If I create a physical painting, its my creation, and copyright me. If I sell it to someone, does the copyright transfer to the new owner?
The reason I am asking is I would like to license high resolution digital pictures of my paintings under a cc license. Attrib and non-commercial, possibly share alike, but am not sure just yet. So that the digital form of these paintings can be freely shared. But, lets say one day someone buys one of these paintings from me. If the copyright transfers to the new owner, then what is to stop them from going sue happy trying to stop all those digital copies out there? Completely undermining what I intended. Naturaly if I retain the copyright to the sold item, then there wouldn't be a problem, which brought me to my original question. Or is a photo (digital or otherwise) of a physical work, not even considered a copy of the original physical work? even if its done well enough to look scanned in, or appear originaly digital? I would guess not if Fox can demand $10k for a shot of The Simpsons in the background of a documentary.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and if any of my questions do not belong on this list I apologize ahead of time.

-steve

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