May 7, 2008
Reference
Communication designers: Turn on your legal radar
Every designer should be a student of copyright and trademark laws. These laws not only protect your work and mine, they protect the work of others—everyone from artists and designers to corporations and public institutions. Part of our job is to be certain that the illustrations and photographs we incorporate into our work do not infringe on existing copyrights or trademarks. Or, if they do, that they are properly recognized and documented.
It is not as simple as it looks. Here, for example, is a technical wiki for the royalty-free illustration and photography site istockphoto.com. It is designed to help the those who submit work for sale to understand what can and cannot be distributed under royalty-free guidelines. You might be surprised at the scope of the imagery that cannot be used without the permission of its owners.
The istockphoto wiki on copyright and trademark issues ...
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Comments
Thanks for sharing this, Chuck. This is very important information for designers to be aware of.
I also commend iStockphoto for putting this resource together for the design community.
Posted by: John Moorehead | May 9, 2008 9:48 AM
Thanks for the post John. I’ve been at this for a while but I was not considering copyright at this level. It was helpful to see.
Posted by: Chuck Green | May 9, 2008 3:26 PM
Sure. I ran into an issue the other day regarding the DVD mark, and almost dropped in a vector thinking it was fine because I had found the art so easily. I had a bad feeling though, and checked it out thankfully. I just wrote "DVD" compatible instead.
I have been working for 2+ years now, and I'm finding copyright issues to be very eye-opening in that I am more aware of how restrictions help to keep control in the hands of the creators. I did not learn about these issues in school, and they can cause real trouble for the unaware designer. They can also be beneficial to designers as well, in keeping brand standards together. A little research really goes a long way.
Posted by: John Moorehead | May 9, 2008 3:44 PM
It isn’t going to get less complicated. I know there are some in the extreme who want to do away with copyright altogether. Hard to know what will happen with so many countries that do not recognize intellectual rights. Until then, I guess we will need to protect what we have.
Posted by: Chuck Green | May 9, 2008 4:06 PM