Photo Copyright Question

[Andrewbullie]

I have a question out of curiosity regarding copyright of images. Firstly i'll set out my understanding of how it works, but please correct me if I am wrong as I would like to learn more:

As I understand it, if I take a picture with my camera then I automatically own the copyright to the image, regardless of what the picture is of. However, there is nothing stopping somebody else taking a picture of exactly the same thing and and then they own the copyright to their image? Therefore, the copyright is for the image you have taken, not the subject?

If this is the case, then how would the following scenario work?:

I find an image on the internet and download it to my computer. I then edit the image in Photoshop where I remove some of the detail and do some clever trickery to create what appears as a different image. So, this image now bears little resemblance to the original but essentially it is still the same picture, just with some editing done to it. I may possibly insert a new layer of my own to give some extra detail such as a cut and pasted feature.

For info, I don't intend to do this, I am just curious as to how the copyright law works.

Thanks!

 

[Musicman]

What you have done is to create, in copyright terms, a derivative work. i.e. one which is derived from another piece.

The creator of the original image owns the copyright on the parts that you used.

One of the rights you obtain through copyright is the right to control the creation of derivative works, so because you did not obtain permission, your rights to the changes you have made are invalid. If you had obtained permission, you would have copyright on those, providing they were your original ideas.

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p22_derivative_works.en.htm

If you have changed the original beyond all recognition, you may get away with it. The law says that there should be a substantial part of the original used for a claim of infringement to be made.

There's a lot of precedent in the music industry with sampling that shows that the definition of 'substantial' can be quite widely drawn, though.