Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Colorado

Re: Copyright issues on scanning book covers for a collage

The act of making the collage could be considered an "original work of authorship" (in copyright law terms) that might suffice to keep you free and clear of any problems. Although an author of an original work has the right of making derivative works from his/her original work, I don't see a collage as being a derivative work. From a practical standpoint, I cannot see any publisher coming after you for copyright infringement since the copyright laws are meant to protect an author's economic interest in order to serve as an inducement to produce original works of authorship. Since you would not be threatening anyone's economic interest, I don't think you have much to worry about - unless, of course, your collage turned out to be so fantastic that people started coming from miles around to see it and you started charging for admission! (Just havin' some fun!)