*DISCLAIMER* This post should not be taken as legal advice or permission.

I recently attended a workshop at the University of Richmond on copyright and fair use in making art. The moderators were Hunter O'Hanian, chief executive officer of the College Art Association (CAA), and Peter Jaszi, professor of law and faculty director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic at American University Washington College of Law.

CAA recognized the copyright concerns of those working in and around the arts. When is it okay to reproduce artworks? Must permission be granted from the creator to use and/or publish the works? What happens if someone else inappropriately uses a copyrighted work that you appropriately published? Something had to be done.

In 2014, American University professors Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi, leading experts in copyright and fair use, were tasked by CAA to conduct a study among 120 visual arts professionals and a survey of nearly 12,000 CAA members. The results from this assessment lead to widely-accepted Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts.

The surveyed art professionals were all in agreement on the broad conclusions presented in the code. Though each individual case will differ and may require extra research, it's probably okay to reproduce something if it falls within the guidelines.

Two things blew my mind in this workshop. As I've mentioned before, I work at a local magazine. On more than one occasion, we have avoided publishing something due to copyright woes. This was largely due to the fact that we are a commercial publication. (Anyone who creates something that they sell for profit is considered commercial.) I now know that the fair use guidelines apply to the commercial world too.

The second notable takeaway was that fair use does not require permission. If you ask someone for authorization to reproduce their artwork and they either say no or don't give an answer at all, you may still be allowed if it's within the realm of fair use.

Fair Use in Making Art

Item three within the best practices document explains the fair use principle and it's limitations in terms of making art. Basically, fair use can be claimed if:

• the new artwork generates a new meaning; 
• you can justify fair use based on your artistic objective for the piece;
• you don't take credit for copyrighted material;
• and you cite attribution where possible.

An example that came to mind from working at the magazine was a story where the accompanying illustration was created in the style of Dr. Seuss. The characters and animals drawn were all completely new, so the meaning was transformed, but the style was clearly Dr. Seuss. We ended up scrapping the idea because we were concerned that since we sell the magazine for money (i.e. commercial), we would be infringing on copyright. That argument is null since fair use applies to commercial works too. We could have justified the illustration as long as we put a note on the page stating something like "This illustration was created in the style of Dr. Seuss."

Fair Use in Lettering

What if I made a poster of a quote that someone wrote or said? This is where it gets tricky. I would likely need permission from the person who said it because I'm not really changing the message of it...unless it is in the "public domain," meaning it's no longer owned by the author. Generally speaking, this would apply to anything published in the United States before 1923. (More on public domain here.) 

Hunter O'Hanian did provide one example where I could use copyrighted quotes in my lettering. Say I created a piece with three quotes from different people plus some sort of analysis about the quotes. The meaning of each original quote would be transformed and I could justify using them under fair use.

For example, maybe it's three unrelated quotes under the heading "This is why the world needs more love." The three quotes have nothing to do with the idea of the world needing more love. That idea is my own and I am using those three quotes to illustrate that statement. Therefore, I am using the quotes for analysis and have transformed their meaning.

Pretty complicated, right? When in doubt, don't do it. It's better to just say no than to get sued by someone. Besides, you can probably come up with an awesome original quote that you can letter and not ever have to worry about copyright issues at all!

*DISCLAIMER* This post should not be taken as legal advice or permission.