Copyright With a Twist

Is it Ok to use a photograph to create a caricature?

[little willie]

I am a budding webmaster and need some guidance on a logo I want to create for my website.
I want to use the photograph image of an old truck I found on a website (with a copyright notice) to create a caricature of the truck for part of my website logo.
Obviously the caricature will be greatly twisted and contorted from the original photograph image of the truck. I could not find anything so far that answered whether it was Ok to do this or not. Your input is greatly appreciated.

[Receptional]

I think that is fine. You are creating a new image entirely I think. You are allowed to LOOK at the photo and you are not duplicating the image.

I am not a lawyer BTW.

Dixon.

[Receptional]

(I am assuming the truck doesn't have Coca-cola written all over it and you are selling Pepsi...)

[Dan_Norder]

I'm not sure what you mean by caricature...

If you want to twist the photo but it's still the photo you'd be clearly violating copyright.

If you are drawing a cartoon, it really depends upon how similar it will be to the original. You could get hit for being derivative of the other work.

If it's so completely different that nobody including the owner of the original can recognize that you used the photo for inspiration, then you are clear.

[rogerd]

Typically artistic caricatures are sufficiently different that relating them back to individual photos is unlikely. I.e., if you do a caricature of President Bush using a photo from Newsweek, it may vaguely resemble that photo but will also vaguely resemble thousands of similar photos published elsewhere.

[stapel]

It is my understanding that "parody" is one of the standard "Fair Use" exceptions to copyright law. As long as the use is clearly transformative, you should be okay.

Eliz.

(I am not a lawyer; the above is not legal advice. Use at your own risk.)

[vkaryl]

You could just do as I do when I want to use a piece of art done by someone else (I'm NOT an artist by any stretch of the imagination!): contact the artist, explain in some detail what you want to do, ask nicely if you may obtain the limited permission to do this, and offer to put up whatever sort of links the artist wants.

I have permission from Steph Pui-Mun Law to use a couple of her pieces on a site of mine; one of them I have permission to use MY OWN POETRY (I AM a writer....) superimposed upon. She was very gracious, and quite happy that I ASKED before even downloading the art.

I have other art from others too - Audre Vysniauskas, who now sells her horse art to others through the medium of cross-stitch kits and charts; several others who aren't "sold" as yet.... I've had two flat refusals: one from a game company when I asked to use a midi from one of their games (which snip I'd actually found on the net and had no idea where it came from, and which my sister identified for me) on my rgp site; and Michael Whelan. I don't blame him, but darn! his Arachne (the cover from Piers Anthony's "With a Tangled Skein" I think) was PERFECT.... *sigh* Anyway, I don't use her, because he SAID NO.

Give it a shot. The most that will happen will be a flat NO. With luck, the copyright holder will give limited permission in exchange for links.