Questions about copyright rules and regulations.

[oldjohnevans]

I am curious about what is covered by copyright regulations and what is not. Let me describe several situations.

1) What kind of pictures, that are used for jigsaw puzzles, are covered, or not covered, by copyright law?

2) If I use a copyrighted painting on my jigsaw puzzle, does the artist get a share of the proceeds when I sell it?

3) Suppose that I like the cutting style of a puzzle made by John Stokes, or even farther out, the mosaics of M. C. Escher. I make some copies of these patterns and use them as templates to cut my jigsaw puzzles. Obviously my puzzle will be similar, but not identical to the original. If I sell the puzzle have I broken copyright law?

[sawdustus]

I do not pretend to be an expert on copyright law, but from what I have read on this forum the answers to your questions are probably close to what follows.

1. If you take or paint or draw the original picture yourself, it is your copyright to do with as you please. I someone else did it, its theirs, and you need to get their permission to sell any derivative works based on it.

2. Maybe, or maybe not. It depends on what the artist wants but you still need permission to use the work.

3. Probably. See # 1.

It is also my understanding that if you just cut something for your own use and not for sale or other commercial uses, you are not breaking the copyright laws. When you sign in next time, use the search function to look up copyright. There are tons of posts that explain this complicated subject.

[CanadianScroller]

If you take a picture from a calendar or a magazine and glue it to a piece of wood, cut out a puzzle and sell it, I cannot see a problem, since you purchased the original.
That assumes that the people who made the calendar or magazine had the copyrights to that image.

If you were to photocopy, the images, without getting permission, then that would be an infringement.

I believe if you copy someones cuttings you would hit the copyright snag again, however, the ideas are a source of inspiration. The Escher tessellation example, is the inspiration for a pattern used in the duck puzzle in issue 26.
I did make sure I drew the pattern and did not copy it to avoid any confusion.

I am sure others with more experience in the field will comment.