Please familiarize yourself with the limitations and the definitions of copyright, public domain and Fair Use. Further information is available online at various web resources.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Art copyright falls into two categories under the Berne Convention, copyrighted works and public domain works:

If the artist is alive or has been dead less than fifty years all rights to reproductions of his or her work reside with the artist or estate. A couple of good starting points for obtaining rights are:

Artists Rights Society
65 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 420-9160
http://www.arsny.com

VAGA
Visual Artists and Galleries Association, Inc.
350 Fifth Avenue Suite 6305
New York, New York 10017
212 736-6666
212 736-6767 Fax
email: [email protected]

"�107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use

"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -

"1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;"

[The copyrighted artists in My Studios are presented for educational purposes, including teaching, scholarship and research. As stated above, I endeavor to provide contact information for owners of the copyright so they will be the sole beneficiaries of any commercial opportunities that may arise from the inclusion of these images in My Studios.

Excerpts from books are presented for purposes of criticism and comment. In these cases, I have supplied a link to Amazon.com for interested visitors to purchase the excerpted book online.]

"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;"

[Even the most heavily represented artists, such as Picasso, include only a minute percentage of their body of work. For the book excerpts, only as much text is presented to illustrate the quality of the writing, and to encourage the visitor to purchase the book to read the rest for himself.]

"and

"4.the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

[The low resolution (72 dpi) JPG images in My Studios are entirely unsuitable for printed reproduction, and as such provide no competition for licensed, high resolution images of the copyrighted images. To the contrary, the availability of these images online often results in requests for licensing information, reproductions, and even original artwork, all of which result in increased revenue for the copyright holders. For the book excerpts, as stated above, the selections are overtly intended to encourage the visitor to purchase the book for further reading.]

"The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors."

The best source for licensing rights to public domain works is Art Resource.
Art Resource is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive stock photo archives singularly devoted to fine art. They have access to over 3 million images ranging in time periods from the prehistoric to the present and from practically every location around the world.

WEB RESOURCES