craftgrrl | that nasty copyright thing that's being ignored

Just wanted to drop a few resources for those who are interested and ethical:

http://www.macworld.com/1996/10/create/2699.html
A fabulous article by MacWorld, mostly about digital issues, but relating some enlightening information about how Fair Use doesn't cover anything that's secondarily sold without licensing from the original artist. For instance:

If you want to use an artist's work–for example, to reproduce all or a significant part of it, distribute copies, or make "derivative works" based on or incorporating the original–you must get permission to do so. This sometimes entails paying a licensing fee. Any unauthorized use of the work is considered an infringement.

So without WRITTEN PERMISSION, it's an infringement. It's not "the magazines won't be happy" it's "I'm stealing and I don't care."

For more complicated info, see the governement's copyright site:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
or the intellectual property site:
http://www.benedict.com/

(sorry -- I've had stuff thieved before, and it -sucks-. So I'm big on this.)