Collage Copyright

Copyright laws are important to collage and mixed media artists for two main reasons. The first is, we want to protect our original art work. The second is, many collage artists appropiate other's works into their work.

Collage is often a derivative work as it may incorporate other copyrighted material. And derivative work must have the original copyright owners permission!

In general, copyright laws are very gray. The safest method of working is to incorporate your own original photography, drawings and other images into your mixed media collage art. There are some artistic reasons as well!

Check out our public domain art page of art you can freely use in your collage.

Copyright Resources for Artists

www.copyright.gov - United States Copyright Office

www.wikipedia.org.gov - Copyright information Wikipedia

www.Nolo.com is a pioneer in do it yourself legal issues. Here are a couple of links of interest from Nolo:
Crafts and Visual Arts,     Is it a violation of copyright to paint or collage over a book's text?

www.funnystrange.com - Copyright for collage artists by Sarah Ovenall

www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html - 10 Myths about Copyright.