Digital Imagery

Copyright and Digital Images

The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA),a North American trade association representing the interests of the image licensing industry, has published a freely downloadable PowerPoint presentation on copyright in image licensing.

The presentation is of interest to anyone who uses or produces images. It includes some very interesting copyright infringement case examples.

Image on the left is a print screen from the PowerPoint Presentation.

"Using the Copyright Act, images from real case examples, and images provided by members for discussion purposes, it walks you through what copyright protects and for how long, illustrating topics such as fair use, what is an infringement and what is not, and how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be used to remove infringing works from the internet.

It is geared to non-lawyers and is presented in a clear and informative way. Slide notes are included to make it easy for anyone to take the presentation to a design class, an ad agency or any other interested organization. The presentation is prepared by Nancy E. Wolff, counsel to PACA and the leading authority in the area of image licensing and the law."

http://www.pacaoffice.org/copyrightPresentation.shtml

You will find answers for:

• When do you acquire copyright protection?
• What is protected?
• What is not protected?
• What rights does the owner control?
• How long does copyright protection last?
• What is Public Domain?
• Is copyright notice needed?
• Who owns copyright?
• Can copyright be transferred?
• Limitations on owner's rights
• What is Fair Use?
• Why should you worry about copyright?
• Who is responsible?

I would recommend paying attention to the "Derivative Work" part of this presentation and to an example of an image created by a computer graphics artist who "borrowed" images from several sources.

The presentation is available for download for teaching purposes on a royalty-free basis provided you attribute it to PACA.

Related publications:
Images for Blogs
How to use images in your blog