: Confused By Copyright Rules I freelance, but I'm still green in some areas and Copyright is one of them. I know about using/purchasing stock and all that, I have accounts on all the stock

@Margaret771

As others have mentioned in the comments, we don't know where you are located, and that impacts answers to this question. However, I recently did some research on trademarks vs. copyrights in the US, and I think some of the information I encountered might be useful to answering your question.

Here is some useful language from the United States Trademark and Patent Office:


A copyright protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. The duration of copyright protection depends on several factors. For works created by an individual, protection lasts for the life of the author, plus 70 years. For works created anonymously, pseudonymously, and for hire, protection lasts 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever is shorter.


As they make clear elsewhere on the site, copyright is used to protect artistic/creative items--including font design, graphic elements, the shape of Mickey Mouse's head, etc.

About trademarks:


A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. Some examples include: brand names, slogans, and logos. The term "trademark" is often used in a general sense to refer to both trademarks and service marks.


Knowing how protective Disney is with its intellectual property, I would venture to guess that Mickey Mouse's head is actually trademarked, not just copyrighted. But regardless, I would think that if you reuse an image protected under either a trademark or a copyright in such a way that it remains identifiable as that image, you are skirting very close to illegal usage, and unless you have a lawyer on standby, I would avoid that.

Hopefully, this can also provide you with an answer to your question about fonts. As is pretty clear from the definitions, words cannot be copyrighted, but the design of that word written in a particular typeface CAN be copyrighted. A word can be trademarked as part of a logo, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the word cannot be used elsewhere, it just means that the owner of the trademark has protected that word from usage in situations that are similar to the trademarked usage. (This part is a little more complex, and I am not sure I am doing it justice with this definition).

Lastly,


I know about using/purchasing stock and all that, I have accounts on all the stock sites, but I created a design, which resulted in some issues.The design had some copyrighted material


You may already be aware of this, but images on a stock site are usually divided into those that are available for "editorial" usage and those available for "artistic/creative" usage (the term used for "non-editorial" varies on different sites).

Here's the description of editorial use only images from iStock:


Unlike the majority of our collection, editorial photos don't have any model or property releases, which means they can't be used for commercial, promotional, advertorial or endorsement purposes. These images often include news, sports and entertainment images that portray real-world people, places, events and things and are intended to be used only in connection with events that are newsworthy or of general interest (for example, in a blog, textbook, newspaper or magazine article).


If you used an editorial image for your design, that could be the source of your copyright troubles. All of the paid stock sites I have ever used have a filter that allows you to search for only non-editorial images. I highly recommend turning that filter on immediately; I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten, and found the perfect image, only to discover I can't use it. :-(

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@Alves566

The situation with fonts is really complicated. Fonts per se are not protected by copyright in the United States. They are protected by copyright in some other countries, but generally speaking that copyright covers the design of the typeface itself and not its use (thus a typographer using a font will not be infringing, though someone who copies a font might be).

Additionally, some jurisdictions provide for design patents, which are not copyright but have a similar effect, and can be applied to typeface designs.

The other wrinkle is that digital font files usually are protected by copyright, even in the United States — they're regarded as a form of computer code. So copying those is definitely infringement.

The history of copyright and typeface design is quite interesting — for instance, did you know that Times New Roman is the name of the original font, designed by Monotype, while Times (the shorter name, and the version shipped with PostScript) is actually a clone due to Linotype? Conversely, Arial is a clone, designed by Monotype, of the original Helvetica font, which was licensed by Linotype. Other type foundries also had variants, notably Bitstream's Dutch 801 and Swiss 721 fonts. Bitstream in particular was notorious for creating digital typefaces that were identical to existing typefaces and giving them its own names. (Monotype Imaging has since acquired Linotype, Bitstream and ITC, so a lot of this past behaviour is now moot, though interesting given your question.)

Anyway, using a font is not a copyright infringement. Copying a font might be, or it might be an infringement of some other kind of intellectual property right, depending.

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@Turnbaugh909

Creating a "brush" or tracing an image to create a vector version of the same image would be considered derivative work. This is a form of infringement. You are using the original copyrighted material to create additional material which could not have been created without the copyrighted work.

For an example of how this can get you into trouble, one merely needs to look at the Sheppard Fairey case regarding his Obama 'Hope' poster.

There is no such thing as "change it by X amount" and it's no longer copyrighted. That is a myth and untrue entirely. If the original can be recognized in the derivative work, it's an infringement.

While rules and regulations vary based on geolocation, the safest assumption to always make is that everything is copyrighted and off limits unless explicitly otherwise stated.

Realize that just because something doesn't have a little © symbol on it or say anything about copyright, that does not mean the work is not copyrighted. Art and creative works, in general, are copyrighted the moment they are created. Your default position should be to assume that photo, poster, scan, drawing, statue, writing, logo, or whatever is copyrighted.



As for words, no they can't be copyrighted, at least not standard words. Unique names, which have no other use, can be in some cases. It is more often commonplace to see words or phrases trademarked which is different than a copyright. See Trademark vs Copyright. Trademarks are about preventing confusion within a particular industry and not about intellectual property (copyright).



See Also:

Is vectorizing an image copyright theft if the image is not CC/Public domain?

Is it copyright infringement by US copyright law if someone else modifies and uses my design?

Can I use the image of a copyrighted character in my commercial design?

How much do i need to change a vector image to make it my own

Graphic Design Copyrights

Copyright ownership: paid by hour vs. paid by project

Copyright on free work

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@Nimeshi706

Difficult to give a short answer to this, but I’ll try my best...

The mechanism by which you create the image (brush, scan, photocopy, potato print, whatever) has NOTHING to do with copyright. If it still looks like Mickey Mouse or is still recognisable as the image that you downloaded then copyright applies. Pretty much every ‘rule’ and ‘loophole’ that people like to believe about avoiding copyright is nonsense.

The words question is rather more complicated, but the answer is similar. You can trademark words (Nokia, Verizon, Coca Cola, etc) and you can also trademark the appearance of those words. This can include colour, font, embellishments or anything else that creates a unique appearance. If you’re recreating a company logo using a similar font then you are almost certainly infringing somebody’s copyright.

A good rule of thumb: if you think you might be infringing copyright then you probably are.

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@Yeniel278

Copyright is a extremely complicated issue. Not only because in many cases the only way to know is to go to court for a clarification of the rules.

The rules also depend on where you are in the world. Although the entire thing is made more complicated by the Berne convention which allows you to import rules from other countries in certain cases.

Now if you do anything with mickey mouse better have a warchest for litigation. As you see its not always about right but also a question of how much you are willing to bet on. But no i wouldnt expect a brush to make much of a difference.

Words can't usually be copyrighted, atleast in most locales, however they
can be trademarked. As for using a font, again depends on your locale some locales are significantly stricter than others. In US you can not copyright a fonts paths, but you can copyright the font software. While in Germany you can own copyright on fonts. ETC.

But I am not your lawyer. And if you do not find copyright confusing that means you're most likely a copyright lawyer.

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