Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
I am a digital artist and as part of my process I use photographs of various items in my work. The other day I took a photograph of some fabric to use on a commercial project and someone stopped me and told me that the fabric was copyrighted. Am I infringing copyright law by using my photograph of the fabric in my artwork?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Usually this question comes from someone who bought a roll of printed fabric and who now wants to make Mickey Mouse hats or whatever out of the fabric. Those people already paid Disney for the copyright in the fabric. In your case, your photograph of the copyrighted pattern on the fabric is a "derivative work" and yes, it is an infringement of the copyright.
With Mickey, there's probably a trademark issue as well. I agree, however, that the fabric, whether printed or woven, would be subject to copyright law if it is an original creative work, and that photographs of it would be potentially-infringing derivative works.
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