Coins and subject matter

After seeing some of the great coin carvings that have been shown on the web I have often been left wondering about the copyrights of some of the subjects e.g. Mickey Mouse, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis. One might be expected that once the coin is sold the celebrities estates or the House of Mouse could put in a claim. I couldn't imagine that the NFL etc would allow the unauthorised use of logos. :thinking:

Some companies will go after any infringement. Art is generally not a problem but it could happen and the artist would probably loose. A one off would be art, producing 500 with Mickey they probably come after you. Andy Warhol did not have a problem with Campbell's a lot of people have had a problem with Warhol. Harley Davidson will go after tattoo artists for copyright infringement. The truth is profiting by someone else's work is wrong and against copyright law but would they be concerned about an engraving. Lord only knows how many of Meeks deer and birds have ended up on guns. I am not an attorney nor have I ever been one. There are a couple of engravers who were or are. Engraving a Case knife or Zippo lighter are infringements and they will and have gone after eBay sellers who use "Zippo" "Case" in their ads. eBay will pull the ads. World Wildlife Federation stopped the World Wrestling Federation form using WWF after more than 20 years. Ralph Loren applied for and got copyright to "Polo" Not sure what they horse hockey game is going by these days. Lots of stories like these. Can see both sides. The worst is the .com industry. When you search a term they immediately register the domain then will offer to rent it to you. Ford pays rent and so does GM. Some of the folks here and on the other forums registered every variation they could think of now will sell you one for sometimes substantial sums, Handengraver.com was listed as being for sale for a quarter million recently. Steve Lindsay has some variations of Engravers café that will redirect you to his site. Several people have tried to get anything with hand engraving forum locked up and redirected to their site. The world is to damn complicated to continue to function. Fred

Quite well said Fred. It would be hard to draw a leaf or scroll that has not been done before. We all study the greats and learn from them and in cases follow a certain style, design or even a country or regions style. German or English scrolls. Italian designs or American Scroll and design work. The internet is great as well as a curse. What artists try to grow or build on others see as an easy way to scan and profit from, such as mass production of Corporate Logos. I would like to think that promoting your team or ride on a personal item would not lead to litigation.
You have a good point Roger where will it lead in the art world. In music you only have a few notes and the spaces don't get bigger

Eric

Unless your coin becomes famous (in a closeup shot in a movie for example), I wouldn't be too worried about it... but then those kinda motifs don't attract me anyway.

I really really HATE advertising of any kind. When an ad is shoved in front of my eyes it produces an automatic reaction in me - to NEVER buy that product.

I will choose what catalog, what site and what product I want to look at. Any company that invades my vision without my permission has lost me forever.



Brian

Dangerous waters.....copyright laws are very hard to understand and apply in the correct way,the Wharol's campbell soup is an example that in art especially is hard to define it ,this is a quiestion that we have discuss a lot of time in hobo nickels community and is very hard find a correct answer, theorically i can't do a coin with a Mickey image,but Disney can make a film with a character inspired in my little son :




hahaha

Paolo, they are already "patenting" DNA... believe it or not.

Even though they didn't and still cannot construct it from scratch.

Disney just got a hold of yours...


B.

Back in the 80's a team of college students got together and wrote, with the aid of a computer program the had written, every song possible. There are only seven notes so the program generated every possible combination based on accepted musical theory. The idea was that they would copyright all the songs that could be written therefore any song writing would be an infringement. Didn't hold up in court. There are programs that write novels based on an outline. the program asks a long list of questions and when you have answered them all it writes the story. Fred

i've done a 26"wide bullwinkle on a site stone. sponge bob & the coyote on nickels. aint in jail yet. if i end up in jail, my dignity will remain intact !

Nice work twin, I mean Monk (inside joke)

Saludos,

Carlos