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How legal are deformed pictures

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larienna
larienna's picture
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Joined: 07/28/2008

With graphic design tools, there are many things you can do to an image which could make it unrecognizable from the original picture. For example, you could blur the picture, add a texture on it and place it in a background behind another translucent picture.

My question is: Is it legal to find pictures on the net, deform them and use it in your game. I remember seeing a WWII RPG book where all the pictures were blurred and deformed. They probably took pictures from archives or movies and made them unrecognizable.

mdiehr
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Joined: 07/24/2009
Derivative works

I am no expert on copyright law, but I am pretty sure that is still infringing on the original work.

Deforming an image like that creates a derivative work - you're still bound by copyright in that case, even if you're using it as a texture to make something different. For example, if there's a copyrighted photo of someone holding a plank of wood, and you use a scaled/zoomed image of that plank to make a wood texture for a card, you're still infringing on the copyright.

In short: Modifying or cropping an image doesn't free it from copyright.

One thing you could do is find some royalty-free image or texture library and use that for your artwork, or maybe find an artist who will do quick sketchy things for cheap, and you can paint under them in Photoshop (in multiply mode) to make it look more polished.

bluesea
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Joined: 07/28/2008
The case of the Associated

The case of the Associated Press suing Shepard Fairey for his use of one of their images as the basis for his "Hope" poster of President Obama may give us the answers to this and like questions. Here's some background and just google "Shepard Fairey Associate Press" for tons more.
http://www.theiplawblog.com/archives/-copyright-law-transformative-or-no...

...although the case has taken a bad turn for Mr. Fairey:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33762/shepard-fairey-targeted-by-crimi...

On another related note, there was a decision in Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. that has interesting implications on the use of 2d public domain art:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.

By the by...I am not a lawyer and have no want to be one. So please take this post as information only, not advice.

Gizensha
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Joined: 07/26/2008
Mm - Unless the license

Mm - Unless the license allows derivative use, or it's in the public domain, I think you'd be on dodgy grounds at best without acquiring permission and potentially paying royalties on it.

Finding something which you can use without getting into potential legal trouble shouldn't be too tricky, however. Personally, I'd start here.

Standard I Am Not A Lawyer disclaimer applies.

InvisibleJon
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Joined: 07/27/2008
Is the source recognizable?

Can you look at the picture and the source side-by-side and tell that one came from the other?

If you can, you may be "at risk"". If you can't, or if it's hard to tell, you're probably okay.

(Insert standard "not a lawyer - I am simply some guy on the internet - disclaimer here.)

Gizensha
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Joined: 07/26/2008
That's moving the question

That's moving the question from 'is it legal?' to 'is it enforceable?' isn't it?

I'd lean on the side of caution and go with public domain images and those released under appropriate creative commons, and similar, licenses, myself.

(I'm still not a lawyer, mind)

scifiantihero
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Joined: 07/08/2009
Anyway . . .

. . . if it's going to not be recognizable, shouldn't any stock/Public-Domain/random-Deviantart-photo-yougotpermissiontouse do the trick?

:)

CloudBuster
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Joined: 04/14/2009
Great Question! I wondered this myself...

I always use stuff from Google Images. BUT....I only use it for prototyping. I think to be safe, if I were ever to publish anything (all my stuff is done simply for fun at the moment...I enjoy the journey) I would hire an artist to do the artwork for me.

For one of the pictures, I went to Google Images and typed "wormhole". There's a pretty cool image of a wormhole "funnel" with a grid and a blueish-white beam going through it. Just the other day I saw someone here using that exact same image for their Avatar on this board!

I tweaked it a bit using layers, brightness and contrast in paint.NET to really make the image pop for my cards, but still...you can tell where it came from.

There should be plenty of sources out there that are either free, or are cheap to have someone mock up for you. Art schools are probably a good bet. The students will either work for cheap (or free) so they can get a portfolio together.

Here's a quote from an email I got from a friend here at work. This seems like a good, cheap way to go, too. I hope it's helpful:

"Try this:
http://www.digitalwebbing.com

- This site has a good help wanted section. Just put in your requirements (600 DPI, Color art, at whatever size you need…get it larger so you could possibly use it for other things as well…t-shirt/poster/etc.) and how much you will pay. You could do $10+ $10 should get you some inexperienced saps just starting out but there are diamonds in the rough for sure. $50 will get you a semi-pro and $100 you’ll probably get someone known in the art world. I pay $300 - $500 for work from famous people to give you an idea…though I almost paid Ben Templesmith $1000 cause he is very popular but he got busy and I couldn’t wait.

http://www.deviantart.com

-The Help Wanted posting is bad here, but you can scan artist pages and find people you like. Then make them an offer. Usually $10-$50 is the standard there…LOTS of people willing to do commissions for cheap."

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