It all depends on how it is done. Collage artists recycle, its part of the meshing of textures and patterns. One thing I have been doing lately that I personally think is OK and feel free to fill me in if you see any horrible red flags going up. I combine the labels from craft beer bottles (sometimes wine bottles as well) with hand made papers, ripped and painted and formed into the shape of whatever glass that particular type of beer would be served in. If you are familiar with it, you could probably figure what type and brand it is, but its not like I put the label on and framed it, it was used in combination with my papers for color and line and contrast and well-- a little humor... I think it would be worse if I started photocopying the labels. This is the real deal, I pay the company for each and every label I use. The money I charge is for my labor in making the art. I don't believe there can be a black and white rule here. The artist needs to know that the focal point has to be their own creation. I do not think that you can totally outlaw taking something already existing and working into it and making it something else. That too can be art, if you start getting too exclusive than I can write off 25% of booths at most art fairs as "no no's if that's the case... I am not saying there are not sleazy people/artists out there that take the lazy way out, no doubt but please don't group hard working collage artist with them just because we utilize recycled materials sometimes. Thanks ;)
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Some of those Collage artists are pretty good. My son studied art in Collage before he specialized in computer animation.
I think there is also a difference in taking what someone has put out there as "artwork" and taking general printed material out there to be used for advertising or fabric or printed papers, etc. It would never cross my mind to take someone's art work that they sell AS art work and then sell it, worked or not worked over as MY art work.. of course not... What I am hearing would mean that torn pages from books, even maps-- I love when artists paint on top of maps... wouldn't be OK, basically you elimiate a whole genre of art. If they feature the copyrighted item as the art (as in the Obama poster) well then....a different story... collage artists take the printed material and manipulate it into their own creation. I believe we are talking of 2 different situations.
Remember the Obama poster that Fairey created.
Larry Berman
This is all the understanding of what I heard about 12 years ago in a class. I may have misunderstood or the laws may have changed since then. If I were doing work using these materials I would check with a lawyer for the latest first.
In scanning the image he's making a copy and not using the original. From my understanding he could cut up the original or paint on it and sell that. He could not then copy it and sell copies or sell pieces containing copies of the original. Only the piece containing the original that was purchased is ok to sell or display.
http://waxy.org/2011/06/kind_of_screwed/
Larry Berman
no, that's not what I mean. Someone can do whatever they want with the copy of the photo they purchased from you. They can not reproduce it and sell it or use a reproduced copy of it in other work. I never thought about music but I would guess a person cannot make a copy of it and sell that but I suppose they could alter the original CD (if it were possible without first coppying it) and sell that. It's the same idea as buying fabric (which has copyrighted designs), make clothes out of it and selling the clothes.
Doesn't make sense or else anyone could sell songs from a purchased CD. Or anyone purchasing one of my copyrighted photographs could reproduce them to resell.
I think what you mean is that you can do anything you want with purchased materials for personal use. Not for resale or commercial use.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
As I understand it, from a class I took a while back that covered legal aspects of the art business, you can do whatever you want with something you purchase. If you are using original labels and incorporating them in your art that's ok. If you copy the labels and then use the copies in your art then it's not ok. You can even buy a photo or painting and cut it up and use it in your work. In your case, the beer companies would probably like the advertising anyway :).