Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia

Re: Copyright issue with the Bird Girl

You should assume that the unauthorized use of anyone else's artwork (statue, painting, picture, music, etc.) is a violation.

Re: Copyright issue with the Bird Girl

The answer is yes. Using a likeness of the Bird Girl statue in stationary/advertising is a copyright violation.

I looked-up the history of this statue on Wiki and found the following information which you may find interesting:

The Bird Girl statue was created by Sylvia Shaw Judson. Judson's daughter Alice Judson Hayes (aka Alice Ryerson Hayes) "holds the copyright for the Bird Girl, and has actively defended it by filing lawsuits against unauthorized reproductions, especially full-sized replicas. She destroyed the mold that was used to cast the 1995 replica, although the original plaster model still exists. Hayes has licensed smaller-scale replicas, which have sold well. She died on Oct 13, 2006, passing on the copyright to her daughter, author Francie Shaw.

Warner Bros. produced a film adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1997, directed by Clint Eastwood. After purchasing the rights to use the sculpture's likeness from Hayes, the studio created a fiberglass replica. The movie incorporated shots of the Bird Girl sculpture on its posters and in the film itself. After the film was completed the replica was sent to the Cliff Dwellers Club in Chicago, Illinois.

Leigh sued Warner Bros. in November 1997 for copyright infringement over their shots of the Bird Girl replica in the cemetery, which were similar to Leigh's original cover photograph. The lower court ruled that the movie's sequences with the statue were not infringement, but an appeals court found that the photographs used for promotional purposes, such as posters, bore significant similarities and remanded the matter back to the lower court. Warner Bros. and Leigh then settled out of court for an undisclosed amount." (source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_Girl (July 7, 2009).

If you really want to use a likeness of the Bird Girl statue, you should contact the copyright owner and ask if you can purchase a license.