Legal
Trademarks, Fair use and ‘found art’
by eNoBlog on Jul.18, 2009, under Legal
I am in the process of selecting some images to sell as prints at an upcoming art show. I am considering some of my car photos, but I know in the past I’ve run into a legal wall when submitting these photos to stock agencies because they contain trademarks. Here’s an example:
Since I won’t be licensing these images for commercial use (unlike a stock agency would), but rather will be selling them as fine art, the question is whether I’m in the clear. This is what I’ve found through Google:
“Are you photographing a trademark? You’ll need the trademark owner’s permission to use the photo unless it falls under fair use, does not confuse the public as to the source of the photo, or does not weaken the trademark by blurring, tarnishment or dilution.”
reference link
Q: Does fine art fall under “fair use”? I think it does.
Some buildings (Eiffel Tower???) are trademarked and their photos cannot be sold for “commercial” purposes.
reference link
Q: Again, is “fine art” an exception? Doesn’t say.
And the most on-point, useful definition I found:
“Another example of Fair Use can be found a term called, Found Art. This refers to the use of an object that, because of its very nature, evokes social commentary. Here, a copyrighted or trademarked item can be displayed (and sold) as artwork, overriding its usual protections. ”
reference link, item 6 “Fair Use”
Conclusion: Fine art or “found art” is fair use and so long as the image is not sold for licensed, commercial use (ads, etc.), it’s fair game.
I found the above link in an interesting discussion that seems to apply exactly to my question and agrees with the fine art exception:
reference link
Anyone else care to chime in, especially with useful links on the subject?
