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Comment on If I cut up pictures to arrange things in a way that when traced over create something "new," is that a copyright violation?

setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

People can give you their best guesses, but without a court case and a ruling it is impossible to say what the answer will be.

My guess, for US law, would be based of the four factor balancing test used in determining fair use. The four factors are the nature of the use, the nature of the copyrighted material, the amount of the copyrighted material used, and the effect of the use on the value of the material.

If you are using the copyrighted works for a non-profit purpose that helps, if you are remixing them that helps, if you are using works that are not violating right of first publishing that helps.

Importantly copyright does not have to be enforced by the holder for them to retain full legal protection. What that means is even if the holder somehow became aware (which honestly is pretty doubtful), they can simply choose not to pursue the matter. The resources that could go into pursuing a copyright case are probably going to be a lot more than any gain they’d get.

The TLDR is yeah sure, it’s probably fine. If you somehow got the evil eye on you, the first thing you’d get would be a C&D letter anyway.

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TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That’s just it. This idea involves dancing very close to the fire, so anything could happen. The result may even depend on the other legal cases available in the area.

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DomeGuy@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Fair use doesn’t even enter the picture unless it’s a copyright violation.

When you use someone else’s copyright work in a way that they could take you to court to stop you, you can in some situations argue that the way you infringed on their copyright should be allowed: that is, that your use of the thing was fair.

OP’s question smells like a software development question. Which would be well served by a straightforward answer of “if the parts you cut out are still protected by copyright, then your assembly and trace would be a derivative work”.

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- setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  you can in some situations argue that the way you infringed on their copyright should be allowed
  
  That would be an argument made in court, pursuant to the balancing test. Thats how fair use is determined.
  
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  - DomeGuy@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s like asserting that a self-defense claim is an argument that you didn’t hit the other guy. You really did hit him (copyright infringement / assault), but you have a defense that admits the literal facts but absolves you of liability (fair use / self-defense.)
    
    You don’t need to argue self-defense if you can convince the court that you didn’t actually hit the other guy.
    
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    setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The OP is asking about using portions of copy written works.
    
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