I'm real clear on corporate logos, etc. Wouldn't dream of making and selling anything with a Disney character on it, but I'm a bit confused on some aspects of the copywrite law.
A few real examples- The Smithsonian Institute owns the Washington Zoo. Their policy is that you can take all the photos you want, but you cannot sell them without the permission of the SI. Well, I have no plans to sell my animal photos taken at that zoo. However, if I take a photo that I took myself, then come back, modify the image, and then make it into a piece of work (or art is you can call it that) by running it through PhotoGrav and them putting the modified image on a piece of cherry.
Could I sell that in good standing? In my mind, if I take a photo and run it through a difussion filter in Photoshop (would be hard to do, since I don't own Photoshop), then that new image is a unique creation. Yes, I used the original to get to that point, but I'm not selling the original, I'm selling my own creation that was inspired by the original. All artists use a variety of things to get inspired. Can you not use an original to inspire you to create a variation of that which is unique?
Seems to me like as long as I'm not selling a copy of the original, then I should be allowed to do so? I also understand that by simply taking the original photo and sending it to the laser doesn't make it unique or original.
Anyone know how that works?