Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Tennessee
copyrights
i make plaster and ceramic gift boxes and placks things of this nature to sell them at our local flea market. my question is i am getting board of the same old plaster molds and i started taking symbols and pictures off the internet drawing them to make a stincil and carving them. so, i need to know if i take a idea off the computer for example a dale earnhart flag use the design to make a stincil and carve it on a ceramic gift box what kind if any legal ramifications am i in for ? thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: copyrights
Images which are copyrighted may not be used legally without license from the copyright holder. One could fairly assume that items being marketed with Dale Earnhart's name are copyrighted, and that to copy images from those items would amount to copyright infringement without permission.
Images which are in the public domain and not copyrighted may be used without fear of legal liability. Telling which is which can be a bit of a problem.
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