Moho Forum

I see lots of Preston blair pdf free for download.
Can I/we use that drawings in the animation?

short answer - no. They are still in copyright (usually author's lifetime plus 70 years, but that can vary - I don't know about laws in your country. He died 1995, so his work is typically copyright until the end of 2065). The fact that you can download stuff for free doesn't change that... and even doing so maybe puts you in breach of copyright laws (because you have a copy that was created without the consent of the copyright holder).

longer answer - maybe ... if you can establish that it's "fair use". So using the concepts he created (e.g. that there are 9 basic mouth shapes plus "rest") is perfectly OK, but using the actual illustrations of those mouth shapes from his book is not allowed unless you're (for example) reporting or commenting on his work such as "PB did this and what I think about his work is ..."

Thanks for the clarification.
Now for example if I read this page
http://www.my-how-to-draw.com/how-to-dr ... bunny.html
and create the same character with a little different ear. Will that by mine or not?

For the same reasons (Bugs Bunny, as a character in copyright media, is protected by copyright laws) the short answer is no.

Derivative works (as per your suggestion of changing the ear slightly) are also protected by law. For example, the copyright to a Donald Duck cartoon restricts others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney's particular anthropomorphic duck, but does not prohibit the creation of other works about anthropomorphic ducks in general, so long as they are different enough to not be judged copies of Disney's.


To use the image (or derivative) might be OK if "fair use" can be established. IMO, the "how to draw" website could reasonably claim fair use under the banner of "research and study" and that it has minimal impact on the value of the copyrighted work.

Just to give you some idea of how ruthless some copyright holders can be, Disney discovered in 1989 that three day care centers in Florida had painted Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy on their walls and threatened to go to court if the centers did not remove them.

USA exceptions illustrated (literally) here... http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/