On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 16:37:04 +0000, Zoney <zoney.ie(a)gmail.com> wrote:
As far as I know, certainly in some jurisdictions very
little
modification of public domain or out of copyright work may be required
to create a new copyrighted work.
While we don't want to be too fussy, as it's unlikely an uncertain
case will be challenged, we should keep an eye on photos of such
objects (to pick a contrived copyrighted example, an inspired photo of
a row of old paintings - i.e. an original work to some extent despite
the paintings not being the work of the photographer)
Also, as a practical matter, I suspect that even in those
jurisdictions, since the work is in the public domain and only the
copies have a claimed copyright, the owners would have to prove WHICH
copy you in turn copied. After all, there's no original copyright to
defend, so proving a resemblance to the original is not enough to
prove infringement. I suspect being unable to determine which
copyright was in fact infringed would make a case rather difficult to
prove.
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