craftgrrl | My experience with asking for permission to use a copyrighted image (Reply)

I was reading through the FAQ section on copyright and learned some really great stuff! It got me wondering if some of the projects I was planning in the near future could be considered copyright infringement (and yeah, they pretty much are, including the Martini & Rossi shirt I posted a few days ago...).

One of the projects I've been working on has been a black velvet tote bag with an ink jet transfer image of Steinlen's "Le Chat Noir" on the front. I traced the lithograph to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and decided it couldn't hurt to email the museum to see who held the copyright on this image and whether or not I'd be able to get permission to use the image on my bag (which would not be for sale or given as a gift, but for my own personal use).

The answer I got is as follows:

Dear Sarah,

I hope that our costs will not prove to be prohibitive to your
project, but I will give you reduced rates when at all possible.

4-month 4x5" color transparency rental: $105
One-country, one-language color reproduction fee: $50

Alternatively, the black and white reproduction is much cheaper:

Purchase of 8x10" black and white print: $17
One-country, one-language b+w reproduction fee: $25

In both cases it is necessary to include the following credit line:
"Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, European Deaccessioning Fund,"
as well as the artist's name, STEINLEN, Theophile-Alexandre.

Also, the work must be reproduced in full, no over-printing or
manipulation of the image in any way. If you can agree to these terms, I will waive
the reproduction fees for either color or black and white, in appreciation
for your desire to respect the copyright laws. I apologize that I cannot
make it any simpler or less expensive, though I think that the black and white
reproduction may prove to be a good choice.

Now, the color transparency rental is definitely out of my range, but the black and white print image is pretty reasonable. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and purchase it, even though it just occured to me that I might have to negotiate whether or not I can, say, scan the image into my computer and then print it out on the transfer paper. I'm thinking that might be an additional cost or there might be more hoops to jump through in order to do that, but I'll ask and report back.

I think it was awfully nice of them to waive the reproduction fees, too.

Anyhoo, there ya go. Dunno if this will be useful to anyone who wants to know more about the result of copyrighted images and using them in craft projects, but I figured it was worth sharing.