Hi, say I found a few pictures on the internet from old newpapers about Titanic. Would I be able to use those pictures in my game to add to the story line? Without being sued Thanks!

Newspaper photographs are usually copyrighted by the paper and/or the photographer. If the photos are from the original news items announcing the sinking, then maybe not because of their age. However, the site that you found them on might have an issue with copyright as well. And then there is the question of ''fair use''. If your game is an educational effort on your part, one that you intend to share but not sell, then you''ll probably be ok so long as you include proper credits for your photo source, most likely, that includes the original newspaper, the website and the photographer (if available).

Yes, newspaper photos are copyrighted. Hence the copyright notice that usually accompanies them.

Photos from 1912, though, *may* have moved into the public domain...but I wouldn''t count on it. Find out who owned the copyright on the photos originally (not hard, just takes a bit of research), and contact them.


DavidRM
Samu Games

The pictures are black and white...find yourself a good artist who can do you a black and white sketch-and-pen of a rendition of the picture(as realistic as possible, of course), and if they can do it to a realistic enough degree, I''m sure it will pass quite well. This assumes that having it be totally-super-realistic won''t be of utmost concern, because it will, of course, look drawn, but a good sketch artist can do a -darn- realistic scene if so prompted.

I dont think there is much of a copyright issue for imitiation of art and photo, is there?

Alright, thanks guys. Yes, I will probably get an artist to imitate the old pictures.

Don''t want to burst your bubble but copyright law prevents the publishing, republishing, altering and COPYING of a copyrighted creation. It doesn''t matter if you use a photo-copier or pen and ink to make that copy if your artists makes a copy of the image then it is still a breach of copyright.

Best bet is to get some pictures of the ship (side and front view) then get an artist to make an original drawing of the ship at dock, at sea or whatever. He is then creating an original work, not a copy. Just make sure you get all copyright assigned to you

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

quote: Original post by Obscure
Don''t want to burst your bubble but copyright law prevents the publishing, republishing, altering and COPYING of a copyrighted creation. It doesn''t matter if you use a photo-copier or pen and ink to make that copy if your artists makes a copy of the image then it is still a breach of copyright.

Re drawing a picture is a time honored way of doing a copyright dodge. Unless you''re tracing over it, it''s a *new* creation that just happens to be very similar.

What you are describing is trademark level protection, _not_ copyright. The Titanic is certainly not trademarked.

Unless you have a source to back up your claim?

yep, AP is right. since the artist would be doing a reinterprtation of the original work (under fair use this is acceptable, much like a garage band playing cover songs). however, this is a gray area and can cause you problems down the road should the orignal copyright owners of the picture happen to feel its worth their time (and money) to litigate.

personally i would suggest doing all new art anyway, since this is a game about the titanic, you could change events (such as the end goal is to prevent the collision). also by doing new art, your game art will fit better. for example if your models/sprites are somewhat cartoonish in appearence, it would help that the pictures in the articles are as well. you could also create images that better reflect what you want to go on during the games evolving plot line instead of being restricted to what actually is known to have happened (again change history, maybe even have the main character a time traveller and make multiple games/levels in various historical locales/times).

just some suggestions, as i am no lawyer i cant 100% confirm redrawing the images would not be considered copyright infringment. though i know that changing the style of the image (ie cartoonish instead of realistic) would more likly be acceptable then a straight copy as best as possible.

Sorry AP and a person, your both wrong.

quote:
Re drawing a picture is a time honored way of doing a copyright dodge.

Yes and like most dodges it is illegal. Following is a quote from the US gov copyright web site.....
Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

The last line is the one that applies here. The original suggestion was to get an artist to COPY (do a pencil or ink copy of the picture). That would almost certainly qualify as a derivative work or just a plain old copy and would be a breach of copyright. My suggestion was to use pictures of the ship as reference but to draw a new picture. That would be ok.

As for a person's comments on fair use they are incorrect and the example given isn't the same as the case we are discussing. The phrase "fair use" seems to have been taken to mean that an item is "copyright but I can copy it anyway", which isn't correct. Fair use allows people to make multiple copies of CDs etc for use at home/in the car and probably to lend them to their friends - it also allows the sort of performances of musical work a person mentioned. It does NOT allow you to copy something for use in a commercial product (or even a shareware or freeware product).

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

[edited by - obscure on April 9, 2002 11:09:13 PM]