Ok weve talked about copyright before , but this interesting issue came up when a friend of mine talked to me bout one of her works being "imitated" , and i thought maybe we'd talk about that today , and i have to say im no legal expert , i just answered her based upon articles ive read . Now her work was basically an idea , and that idea , was imitated . The photos im using in this post arent the ones in discussion theyre just a couple of my photos i used to relief ur eyes of the boring long lines..(or maybe the lines are better, haha).. :)
My reply :
now im not a legal expert here ,so this is only my opinion , yet i will send this to some of my pro friends and see what they come up with if u want.... but i will tell u this......theres 2 words we can discuss here .... LEGAL and ETHICAL....now legally its a pretty tricky issue : there is no violation to copyright ( assuming that this was copyrighted in the first place which i assume isnt ) , because he did not save ur pic to his computer and use it in its exact same form , so he did not reproduce ur work . what happened here (was by reference to both links u sent me ) reproduction of THOUGHTs or creative IDEAS . I copy pasted this piece from http://www.photosandthelaw.com/articles/copyrightthis.htmAnd it goes like this " Copyright protection is only available for the expression of ideas and not the ideas themselves. This is known as the idea/expression dichotomy. An example of this dichotomy would be that copyright would not protect a discussion with my partner about how we could set up a particular photo – but the notes we wrote on the back of a cocktail napkin would be protected.If we were to create an image that resembled the Mona Lisa (an example that I use only because it is so widely known. However, if this were really the initial work, copyright wouldn’t have been an issue as the time of protection has expired.) I find a woman who is of similar appearance and I dress her in a similar manner, placing her in front of a similarly situated background and take a photo. All I have copied is the idea of the original. No actual part of the original was used in my re-creation and therefore this would copy would not violate the initial creators expression, but rather just the idea.However, if I took a high resolution image of the Mona Lisa and through the powers of Photoshop put my face into her head – I would have been using the actual original expression in my work – and assuming that copyright protection still existed in the original work – I would have violated it.I have heard it proclaimed by numerous people that there are only five photographic ideas that have ever been taken in the world. Every other photograph has been some sort of derivative of those initial ideas. While this is certainly questionable, it does wrap up this column in a concise manner. Just because someone had an idea before you – does not mean that you will be unable to use that same idea for your own work – so long as you express it in your own original way. "So this is pretty clear . i guess ?! :)
ETHICALLY .. i dont think theres any violation here either , because he said in his own words that the idea was urs , and that he tried to imitate it . So if i were u , and thats just me , id be happy i inspired someone, then again thats just me.
Bottom line is , since u , decided to display ur pics on the web , u should be aware of what could happen as a result of this display , and in ur case u learned that thoughts can be copied , if u didnt want that then ur option would be not to risk that by posting in public . I would also advice u to watermark any work of urs u find important before posting it , it wont protect the IDEA , but will protect u against the copy paste issue.As for me , i try not to waste time thinking about who took my IDEAS and who didnt , i concentrate on my work , push myself to do better , and start coming up with works of such QUALITY that not a lot of people can reproduce , even if they lifted the idea.... I hope this has been of help to u , if u need further info please tell me so i can ask more about this ..
Sincerely, Semary
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