Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia
Can anyone recreate an image of an artist drawing like from a magnet that you bought from ebay without being sued for copyright laws? The magnet has a drawing of the Beatles on it. I would like to put it on coin purses to resale.
2 Answers from Attorneys
"Recreating" an image is also called stealing the intellectual property of someone else and can lead to criminal and civil penalties.
"Recreating" the image is called copyright infringement.
You can go to prison if you are criminally charged. A commercially motivated infringer can receive up to a five-year federal prison term and $250,000 in fines; a noncommercial willful infringer is subject to up to a one-year prison term and $100,000 in fines. The prison term maximum for repeat infringers is up to 10 years for commercially motivated ones and up to six years for noncommercial infringers. (Yours would be commercial infringement).
You can also face enormous fines in a civil action. In some cases they can be up to $150,000 per item. The minimum is $750 per item.
In other words, do NOT do it.
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