©2013 Copyright. All rights reserved.

"Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other  intellectual works," as stated at copyright.gov. 2 examples of what would constitute "copyright" is copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case.

Fair use is the doctrine that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder. An example of "Fair Use" from an artist is, quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review.

The street artist who created the iconic red, white and blue Obama "Hope" posters was sentenced to two years probation after tampering with evidence. Shepard Fairey pleaded guilty in February to criminal contempt of court for falsifying and destroying documents and coaching a witness while embroiled in a copyright infringement battle over his use of a now-famous image by The Associated Press that featured then-Senate Barack Obama.

Fair was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines in a dispute that dates back to 2009, when he bought a federal lawsuit against AP, claiming that he was entitled to use the image under the fair use doctrine, according to a statement by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.





Halloween before image used with permission, Creative Commons

Playing with photoshop exploring what liquify, dodge + burn and clone stamp tool can do.