I don't think that drawn or painted "reproductions" count as a copyright
infringement, afterall, no matter how good it is still an artistic
interpretation.  I remember that a few years ago AAM did a whole series on
copyright in response to several companies that sell slides.  I recall that
there was a curious twist in the law that allowed photographers of
sculpture to work outside copyright, assuming that no two shots would be
alike and, thus, the work is "artistic."  Copy-stand reproductions of
paintings, however, were protected by copyright as the images was simply
being "copied."
Anna



Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 07:40:33 -0700
From: Adrienne DeAngelis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: drawing in museums
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        I think that a difference needs to be made between copyright
concerns in the museum and the nuisance factor of art student
copyists. Something like this topic came up on the VRA list some years
ago, and aside from the rather tiresome protestations that copying equals
copyright it was, I recall, generally agreed that the real problem was
dealing with the presence of the supposed artists themselves.
        By the way, unless the copyist is working in a modern art museum
or gallery, he or she would most likely not be violating copyright per se
for works in the public domain. Presumably the problem might be that the
copyist could be infringing on the right of the owner of the work of art
to reproduce it, but I would think that that would be almost impossible to
prove, considering that public domain copies exist for almost all such works.
I think that it is still true that there are no court cases for such
copyright claims.

        Adrienne DeAngelis, Editor
        Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
        (http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html)
        [log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anna Fariello, Curatorial InSight, Box 505, Christiansburg VA 24068
www.curatorialinsight.com;  540-382-3946;  [log in to unmask]
Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA 24061-0227
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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