My book manuscript was finished finally. Now all I needed was an eye-catching book cover. The perfect choice for Healing through Humor: Change Your Focus, Change Your Life! was an oil painting I’d owned for over 35 years. It pictured a seated clown listening to his own heart with a stethoscope, a medical book open on his lap. I’d simply photograph it and e-mail it to my publisher to use as my cover image. Was I surprised to learn that while I owned the painting, I didn’t own the rights to reproduce it! I’d paid a lot of money for that huge painting. Who sez I can’t use it? Well, copyright law, that’s who.
Nolo.com, the do-it-yourself legal guides creator, advises that, “,any original work – whether text, visual art, photos, or music – is protected by copyright law. You may not reproduce it without permission from the copyright owner. Giving credit or thanks to the copyright owner does not change that; you are not allowed to reprint,the work without the owner’s authorization.”
So I began the search for the elusive artist, Robert Owen, who I was sure was probably dead by now. I checked the Internet but all I could find were sites advertising his paintings with no direct contact information for him. I finally found an art dealer who wrote back with a phone number for the artist’s agent – his daughter. (He’s alive!) After explaining what I needed, she said she’d ask him. A week later she e-mailed me, saying simply “Bob says it’s okay.” I asked what he’d charge, and she responded, “No charge for using the picture – per Bob. Just send two books, one for me and one for my dad.”
I still needed his written permission, of course, but now it’s completely legal!
Good info, Nanette, particularly as applies to art work. Additionally, it’s interesting that one must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce even “one” line of a poem in a book, but with permission one may quote 3,500 words from another author’s work, if, you are for instance, writing that author’s biography. Obviously, you cannot include it in a work of fiction.