Business of Scanning Art and reselling

From the legal prespective, doing this without the artist's permission would be blatant copyright infringement of the worst kind. Ownership of the original does not give you the legal right to copy the work. To address the copyright issue, you either need to get the artist's express permission to make the copies or else get the artist to assign the copyright to you.

Actually I think it's still a break of copyright unless you get specific permission.

You can't be serious.

Keith Laban Photography

The copyright should belong to the artist.

Many artists do this for themselves.

If you buy the complete and exclusive rights to that ONE particular piece of art I imagine you could do this. But be prepared to pay a LOAD more for the picture.

True, ownership of the original does not allow you the right to copy and sell the work. However, you may enter into an agreement with the original artist to do so. Usually this involves a fee (either fixed or per print sold) that would be paid to the artist. Reproduction can be in the form of a full-size giclee print that might sell for thousands of dollars apiece, to note cards of the image(s) selling for a few dollars. There is additional value added if the artist participates in signing each print or copy.

It's not cheap to get into this business. Negotiating rights, prepress and press costs, distributing and marketing costs all add up. But it can be done. Good luck.

Wait to you get the teenagers; kids's mom's; wanting Britney Posters from Walmart "copied"; since "it is cheaper to make a copy; then buy another for 6 bucks">

The idea of scanning old art; posters; is over a decade old. I think Blair Graphics in Santa Monica had a 4x5 digital back in 1995 or 1996; They were scanning old movie posters.

You are setting yourself up to be sued; if making illegal copies of other folks artwork.

Here I use a 35 megapixel digital back; on a 4x5 camera; it makes a nice image; but is slow. Consider the return on investment; on a settu that cost as much as a car; and the rework pleasing colorblind clients.

Plan on turning down alot of illegal work.

Many weird artists paints in the blue and purple colors are hard the copy; sometime we must creat a layer; and locally crop out and correct the blue/purples.

Artists are hard to deal with; seem to never have any money; and want you to always do something for their cause. How many free jobs do you want to do; and still pay for the scanner and light bills?.

Actually in the first example the ARTIST herself suggested we buy the print and copy it to the size we wanted.

The artist might have granted you the right to have a piece reprinted at a different size for your personal use, but this does not mean that she granted you the rights to reprint it for sale. No rights are granted unless explicitly agreeded upon. As a photographer, how would you feel if someone bought one of your prints, scanned it, and started to license the image and sell prints of it ? Terra Galleria fine art prints

I think you should at least try to find your first client and see how it goes.<br>

If I have the Mona Lisa painting, you bet your ass I would copy it. Is it morally right to do so? Now that's a different story.

I'm with Eric.

OK let's say the artist says OK I agree to sell you the original print and you can do whatever you like as far as reproducing - IN FACT I contacted the artist of a painting I have hanging in my house - he told me that as far as he was concerned the piece was mine and I could reproduce as I saw fit and if I could market it OK - now I'm not saying I am going to do it - what would I need from him that would give me that right?

Photographer's can and often DO sell any and all rights to a photograph - in fact many times GIVE those rights away (I have and other people and companies have profited from my work) - read the fine print when you enter a photo contest - even if you DON'T win a thing, just by submitting a picture for entry you are giving up any and all rights to it.

What if the artwork was a big studio movie (Sony, Disney...) and you bought a wide screen version, changed it to fullscreen, and sold them at an artfair? Think you'd be wearing stripes by sunset?

Since I am also an artist, having produced and sold paintings for over 35 years, I can assure you that if I found you doing this with my work, I would have you in court in a second.

I may sell the painting, but I retain all rights to the image, and using it in this way without specific agreement constitutes theft ('copyright infringement' is just a diplomatic term).

Some of you folks need to go back and read my opening statement - I am asking what it would take on EVERYONES part and in particular the artist's - I am BY NO MEANS advocating riping the artist off here in any way shape or form - some of you are JUMPING to conclusions that that is my intent - AGIAN I am asking what the proper forms and agreements would needed to do this.

Since this post yesterday I have talked to several artist friends of mine, some make good money selling art others do it as a sideline and make decent money with it. ALL of them have said they have sold artwork WITH THE AGREEMENT it could be reproduced - some have charged more for this SOME have NOT - the agreements have been in writing with some agreements being very simply worded and one was a pretty long and inclusive document.

So please some of you need to calm down on this - your acting like my intenetion is to rip off artists - THAT IS NOT MY INTENTION and if you go back and reread the original post you will apparent.

Here's the question:

"QUESTIONS: first if we owned the original are we able to resell/resize, as we want? Are any special releases needed from the artist if we wanted to scan and reprint and RESELL to others?"

Here one locally famous artist ALLOWS this old lady to have copies made of her artwork; and then the copies are sold at fairs by the old lady; the money going a nonprofit cause. All we do is copy the work; we have a letter on file for each work; stating only lady XYZ can have the copies made. Allowing unlimited copies of artwork does exist; it is abit rare. What we make off the copies is abit of nothing. She calls an finds a slow day; and only wants to deal with one of our employees. No other will do; no matter how well the machines are calibrated. What matters is the bonding process; where each copy is studied and approved. There is no mass production at all; just make a print; abunch of duds. After awhile one can bring the duds again to her; and she will accept them. It is totally an irrational; nontechnical; emotional acceptance process; or worse. The employee will be with her all day; working thru lunch; tieing up half the front counter; and several machines. All this time the lady has a taxi outside waiting; running then AC; for hours. The lady doesnt drive. The prints are sold to save the environment; the cabie burns then fossil fuel to stay cool. We can only do this "work for free; work at a loss" on a super slow day; because machines are tied up. The lady maybe there for 3 to 5 hours; very very few work is outputed on to inkjet; the cost is too high; most is on to archival 11x17 thick laser output. The machine here must be in tip to shape; to make decent output; calibtrations are done alot to make a true copy. Sometimes an hour will pass; and the inkjet and laser copies output will all be rejected; THEN they will like the first copy that you made an a hour; before the machine was recalibrated. The one she likes looks like the colors are wrong; so one must force the machine to print off color; to again please the picky artist.

The work above is just an event done 3 or 4 times a year for charity; the money we get wont pay for the raw materials; and labor; if the equipment was free.

Then we get into the sticky wicket were a person who bought the copy of the artwork want another copy from us; and we have to say no. This is like negative advertising.

Our large digital settup is used to make a buck coping old prints; maps; artwork for folks who want a copy of their work; a duplicate for the home and the office; for work they created. Sometimes we get work from muesium's; but here sometimes they want a color transparency and and copy too.

The color matching of an artists work is irrational; emotional; what matters mostly is the hand holding; approval process; micromanagemnet of each step. This radically bumps up the cost of doing work; so figure what money your really are making; (or losing).

All very good points - I would assume that most artist's would demand (rightly so) inspection and approval of any copies of original works for resale - I see where it could be a real pain in the.....

>>All very good points - I would assume that most artist's would demand >>(rightly so) inspection and approval of any copies of original works >>for resale

That the artist would want control on the quality of any copies resulting from their work is just obvious. It's also obvious they will want a piece of the cash YOU will be generating thanks to THEIR artwork. Duh!

I forget the amount of years but copyright law only lasts so long and unless redone, the work becomes public domain. You'd have to look into this but the trick would be to find old art, possibly from old art books and make copies of those.

Last I heard, in the USA copyright expires 75 years after the creater dies. I am not sure how this works with corporations (think work for hire).