There is a lot of gray in this. Anything you can see from a public place, you can photograph. And that photograph becomes yours to do with what you want. Using someone else's photograph or logo is another matter. If you take a photo of something, such as a car, that has a copyrighted logo on it, you are still OK. You are not duplicating that logo. You are taking a photo of something that just happens to have a copyrighted logo on it. You, however, could not duplicate that logo and use it. The Ford emblem, for example, is copyrighted. But you can take a photo of a car with the emblem on it. It's when you try to pass the emblem off as your own that you would get into trouble.
Clear as mud, right?
This month's Popular Photography issue has a good article on all of this. I don't have it in front of me but it says something like 90 percent of all photos posted are "stolen" from the copyright holder.
I did not intend to make an issue out of this at all. Just adding my two cents.
Clear as mud, right?
This month's Popular Photography issue has a good article on all of this. I don't have it in front of me but it says something like 90 percent of all photos posted are "stolen" from the copyright holder.
I did not intend to make an issue out of this at all. Just adding my two cents.