Stock photography copyright question.

Factual Questions
1

I’m publishing a reprint of one of my books. My co-author and I (we’re both graphic designers, too) are currently working on the cover. He mocked up something using a piece of stock photography for the background (from PhotoDisc, I think). I like the look of it a lot, but we’re not looking to spend any money we don’t have to–esp. on stock art.

So I ripped it off.

That is to say, I built something similar in Photoshop using totally original photos, etc.–nothing copyrighted, nothing that belonged to PhotoDisc.

My question: Is this legal? I haven’t used their artwork. I’ve merely made something that was inspired by it. (Though the piece is extremely close.) And I’m not passing it off as theirs, as if I forged a Van Gogh and said it was real.

Judge for yourselves.

Here is my co-author’s mock-up, using their background flag image: http://www.strangevoices.com/stockimage.jpg

Here is my image: http://www.strangevoices.com/myimage.jpg

2

  1. Congrats on the book! It looks interesting—what’s it about? Why aincha endlessly plugging it here, like CalMeacham and I do?

  2. Who designed the original cover? Can you get permission from them to “borrow” from the design? They are similar enough to be “intellectrual property.”

3
  1. It’s a humorous nonfiction acct. of a cross-country journey to famous UFO sites. It’s here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966604407/strangevoices
2) We designed the original cover (at the link above) but wanted something a bit cleaner for the reprint.

My co-author designed the first cover I linked to ( http://www.strangevoices.com/stockimage.jpg ), but that big flag/star background is a piece of stock photography. I faked it from scratch to produce the second cover ( http://www.strangevoices.com/myimage.jpg ).

We COULD buy the photo, but we don’t want to, 'cause we’re poor. Most likely, if we decide my faked version is legally questionable, we’ll just design something different from scratch.

4

Your creation may be what is know as a “derivative work.” Here’s a pamplete from the US Copyright Office about them. If your cover is a derivate work (and you’d need a lawyer, and ultimately a jury to decide that) then it is an infringement. I’d be careful and talk to a lawyer.

5

Sounds like a terrific book—and congrats on the great Amazon reviews! Looking forward to reading it.

6

Excellent link. Thanks. I fear that “a drawing of a photograph,” which they mention as an example of a derivative work, may fit the bill in this case. I’ll probably redesign.