Considering the fact I didn't use any photos from anyone
other than my family for this project, it should be quite easy to address.
However, I guess there was the whole issue of communicating to my family
exactly what the images were to be used and where they would be displayed. Now,
my folks don't really understand the digital world I was referring to when I
use the word "montage", but they pretty much agree to anything they
don't understand, so I gathered I was free to do what I liked with them.
As far as I understand it, all images used are classed as
private pictures, but they were obviously taken all those years ago in a range
of different settings, both public and private. For this reason, the rights of
the images taken by my family are owned by my family, who have given me their
permission to digitally manipulate them. In this case, it is a good job I
didn't use any pictures from my parent's wedding, for the copyright of a
photograph lasts for 70yrs after the death of the photographer (1). They
married in 1967, so we can assume the photographer is dead, but nevertheless
the clock is still ticking on his copyright.
Legally, scanning an image for its digital use and manipulation is regarded as something only the owner can do, for we are changing that image. Some people have confused this as Fair Use (1), which covers literary criticism and other educational uses, but- like most legal issues- this differs from case-to-case. Artistic use is not covered by this, especially when used for commercial gain (which mine obviously is not).
So then this is the major issue concerning those making digital montages: we are taking someone else's images and manipulating them into something, which we will then call our own. In the eyes of the law, the montage/collage is classed as a Derivaticve Work (2), which means the montage is incorporating previously existing pieces that someone else owns.
Another common pitfall made by collage artists is that their work falls into the category of de minimis, which means only a small amount of the original work. According to the website I gathered my research from, this should cover most cases of collage, but the law is never fully concrete on this issue, so it is best overlooking when embarking upon a project.
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