internet images and copyrights

I have a copyright question from an artist’s point of view. Let’s say a person downloads a picture of Todd McFarlane's Spiderman and brings it into a shop. Legally Todd McFarlane or at least Marvel owns the rights to that image. As an artist is it legal to make money off of that image by tattooing it? On the same note is it legal to have a computer with internet access in your shop, thus allowing customers to download and print the picture of say Stewie Griffin from a “Family Guy” website to get inked. You know good and well that people will print the picture from home bring it in and give it to you to tattoo. Adding this access in the shop could keep a customer from having to go find the picture themselves, keeping them in the shop and preventing them from going some where else a few days later, but is that legal to do?

1st Question: No.That's why things are copyrighted 2nd Question: a) Having internet access? No probs b) Allowing people to dowload images? Marginal. c) Using those images? See Q1

Tons of people have spiderman tattoos and tattoos of images that are copyrighted and nothing happens to them. I'm not a tattoo artist, but I don't see anything wrong with providing the means for your clients to access what they want...especially cause they would have done it anyway at home. I haven't heard of anyone suing a tattoo artist for tattooing a movie character or famous image that's copyrighted...but who knows what will happen in the future in our litigeous society.

for example: many moons ago there was a lawsuit filed against someone who was publicly selling flash with the sorcerers apprentice (mickey mouse from fantasia) on it to make money. of course that got noticed. now if police were going around arresting artists who did not have permission to use an image - we'd all be in jail. theres just no way to enforce it, it would waste too much time. i do think its shitty to rip off another artist by bootlegging their flash, and i see these fucks on ebay doing it all the time.

I don't think it's ever a matter for police as it's in the area of Tort Law i.e. Civil rather than Criminal wrong. Usual procedure for those who guard their Intellectual Property jealously is to send out a "Cease & Desist" letter from their in-house legal division/lawyers-on-retainer. If that has no effect, then they rachet up the pressure until they get the desired result. There's no point in using an Elephant Gun to hunt mice.

very true.

So this seems more and more like a very gray issue then black and white one. Who is going to take the time to arrest/audit everyone with a tattoo of Spiderman? It is not like it goes unnoticed; Bon Jovi and Shaquille O'Neal both have Superman tattoos. Don't get me wrong original art kicks ass but people will always love their icons and symbols (I have a Spiderman and Wolverine...shame on me). So it all comes down to is providing clients the means to break copyright law any different in the eyes of the law then taking a picture they downloaded and inking it. More importantly is it worth worrying about. Does anyone out there have internet access for clients now?

One more time...it is Tortious (that's illegal if you want to think in those terms) and you can be crushed like a bug if it suits Disney etc. The reason they don't bother is because of Cost vs Benefit, but if you make it worth their while, they can get nasty (and not in that good way).

Sorry misread post...providing them with the means to infringe? Probably not. Providing & Encouraging is another matter as you'd probably be something of an accomplice, particularly if you knew that someone (you?) would be then using the facilities to further infringe...but if you're really concerned, this probably isn't the place to seek legal advice, is it?

Is it legal to tattoo an image thats copywrited? Grey, probably not legal technically, but I feel its fine ethically and I dont know of any lawyers suing artists for doing this because it isnt practical. Tattooing is a very unique art, and copy-write is a relatively new way to control artwork (for the purposed of $$$). In short, artists should be honored people want their artwork tattooed in a clients body, and a client deserves to have anything they want tattooed in them. The owners of Rosie the Riviter contacted this website and had us take down any tattoos of Rosie. Sent us a nice letter and everything, we just took down the tattoos. It is certainly legal to have a computer in your studio connected to the internet! We have and Ive seen many many studios with computers to find reference online everyday. Fact is copy-write is a way to control the flow of art (which wants to be free once it gets out!). I agree that the government should step in to insure the market pays artists fairly for their art, but not to unnecessarily control the flow of said art. There are plenty of ways spider-man makes money, as an entity it doent need to care that fans want it tattooed on them(in fact, this kind of fandom should be encouraged (except no one should really encourage anyone to get subjects tattooed on them due to the sacred nature of the art)).