Wednesday, 7 November 2007, Andre Engels wrote:
However, I think that we should cut ourselves *some* slack in the depiction of copyrighted works. Very little can be photographed otherwise - a car or a piece of technical apparatus is designed, and thus copyrighted,
No; the design of a utilitarian object is subject to a higher threshold of originality and is therefore usually not copyrightable. The design of cars are instead protected by design patents. Things like closeups of hood ornaments or badges, however, are problematic.
and even photographing a person would be problematic, as you'll have to reckon with their clothing designer.
Again, most aspects of clothing design will be dictated by its utilitarian properties. Of course, the print on a t-shirt may be copyrightable, but if the objective is to depict the person, such inclusions are usually secondary and acceptable under the de minimis rule.