CopyRight

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:42 pm

The other day I was at the dollar store and ran across some old flash cards pre WWII. The are called 'training cards for the severely handicapped.' I bought them for a dollar. They are mostly hands in different positions.

I tried to research the company but it seems they are no longer in business and neither the cards or the box credits an artist.

My question is would be OK to trace over the hand positions?

Thanks

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:51 pm

You may trace everything, from Mona Lisa to whatever.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:59 pm

slowtiger wrote:You may trace everything, from Mona Lisa to whatever.

Can I use the traced hands in my animations?

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 3:02 pm

Here is one of the hands.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:41 am

Pretty generic hands, and after you traced them they'll look a lot different. But it looks like interesting material. Maybe you could scan them in completely and put them online, for helping others, too?

I kept some Letraset transfer sheets from the 70's for the very same reasons: to use them as reference. But they were much too small to be useful.

Tracing: One of my first jobs was for a museum. I had to create illustrations of neolithic men building graves from big stones (megalith tombs). Because I couldn't really draw muscular men at that time (still can't), I grabbed some of Hal Foster's Tarzan comics from the library and traced all useful poses. My illustrations are still out there (it's an open air educational path in my hometown), and nobody knows that all those neolithic men actually were clones of Tarzan ...

dm · Post by dm » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:54 am

Pre WWII might put it in public domain (if no one renewed the copyright-quite possible).

but, in the USA, if it's still under copyright, then you'll be infringing if it's still identifiable. http://www.conceptart.org/copyright/ has a powerpoint presentation that illustrates some of this.

http://copyright.gov/ is the official place.

"look and feel" often counts. But, the sample you posted isn't exactly iconic, is it?

My guess is, it probably won't matter to anyone, no matter what.

sbtamu · Post by **sbtamu** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:29 am

Thanks guys,

I have one character that can use real looking hands and what I have been doing is tracing my own hand but the results were not that good so these flash cards really came in handy.