Artwork copyright infringement questions

shortys94

Hey,

Is there any way to look at what Irish literary figures are under copyright?

I have a relation who is an artist and has been steadily building up a collection of artwork, mainly surrounding portraiture of Irish literary figures (Yeats, Shaw, Behan amongst others). His work is not a carbon copy of any existing image but adds his own personal taste and flavours to a painting which may have been inspired by 1/2 photos.

In the last few days, he was contacted by an individual to cease and desist with the sale of certain artwork. This work was associated with a literary figure who passed away more than 70 years ago, however, a portrait which he used to build from was recently re-commissioned.

My question is how does one go about finding out about the copyright of an image or individual? There is google advanced image search, in which you can remove any images tagged with licencing or copyright stipulations, however if an image is not tagged with any licencing terms perhaps this is not included by Google. Also, it is often hard to find the source of an image, or if it is copyrighted at all since so many websites seem to use one image.

Does anyone have any experience with this, how should he go about ensuring he is not infringing upon any copyrights in future?

nuac

Mod
Leaving open for general discussion, subject to forum rule on legal advice

rock22

Unfortunately you provide very little detail to discuss this , however, in the circumstances you describe -

It is possible that an original photograph is still protected under copyright laws. these have changed down the years so it is important to know when and where the image was created, by whom, and who owned the copyright if it is not owned by the creator.

Your relation has create a "derivative work". He will be found to have infringed copyright if a "substantial" part of the work is copied. Ultimately , only a court can decide if he did in fact copy a substantial part of the photograph.

You mention that the photograph has recently been re-commissioned. Can you explain what you mean by this. Was an attempt made to extend copyright.

Finally, has the individual who contacted your relative obtained the copyright. There have been cases of libraries/stock agencies pursuing people for copyright infringement even when they themselves did not own the copyright.

There are some exceptions to copyright which allow the creation of derived works for own use. If your relative is building a collection for their own use then they may not have infringed any copyright laws.