Copyright / Royalties I don't understand them.

[Major Fallout]

Can someone help me understand Copyright / Royalties please.

Say for example I took this photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/uzvards/176837718/, then cropped it and messed around with it till I was happy.

Then printed it onto a an item of clothing, then started selling them.

(I don't want to do this by the way)

Who would I pay to use the image? How would I find them?

Because its a photo of a poster, would I have to pay the poster designer and the photographer?

[maxxy5]

It's so old that it's unlikely anybody still holds the copyright on the design, I would have thought? However you do need to be more careful if you are selling the image itself, as on a poster or a mug, as opposed to publishing it. Often these things are never black and white, it's a question of risk.

[Major Fallout]

I see, so there are diffident types as well.

What happens if you take a photograph of a car or painted a picture of a car, would you have to pay the car manufacturer?

Thank you for helping!

[LongQ]

If you are operating in the US who knows what the 'rules' are? It's quite possible that there are loacl and national laws to consider - but I don't know for certain.

[Major Fallout]

I'm not US based.

[oilandwater]

I also wondered about this a while back. What if you only use a part of said poster, change the colour of a cup for instance, generally muck about with the size and aspect of it, but then use that for commercial purposes?

[LongQ]

Major Fallout said:

I'm not US based.

You don't have to be US based to become entwined with their ways of dealing with things ...

However I will admit that I assumed you might be operating over there based on the link you provided that seems to point to a photostream presenting US originated images .... or so it seems.

I assume the artwork you alluded to earlier is in the photo that refers to donating blood? If not I'm not sure what your question is.

[Major Fallout]

Oh sorry no, it was a photo of a 1920's / 1930's racing car poster.

I just picked a random photo really.