A Copyright Question

Copyright Laws Prevent You from Selling Designs in Greeting Card Software Packages You Bought

Hi:

I'm interested in starting my own line of greeting cards and I've read through pretty much all of your info. But I have a question...

If I were to start my own line, but used the backgrounds & borders from PrintShop or CreateACard, could I get into trouble for using theirs instead of an original from me?

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks,

Lisa

Your question makes perfect sense and is something I never considered before.

Copyrights are not my strong point. To be perfectly safe, you should consult a copyright attorney.

I guess I always thought that I bought the disks and owned what was on them. However, when I got your e-mail I checked some of the brochures I have laying around for these programs. Broderbund asserts copyrights, but it is not clear if it's for their trademarks or for the contents of the disks. Sierra specifically states you cannot sell their designs.

My philosophy is that to succeed in any craft business you have to be original. That said, if you want to use designs you have bought for commercial purposes, check the brochures that came with them and, if necessary, the company's website to see if a copyright is claimed or if you can pay a bit more for a commercial license.

If you can't use the designs on the greeting card program disks, don't despair. There is a lot of free or very cheap artwork you can use. All paintings before 1923, I believe, are in the public domain and usable by anyone. This includes all the grand masters' works.

You can buy books made for decoupage and collage artists that include royalty free pictures, including old advertising posters, matchbook covers and more.

There are websites that supply free photos and clip art, sometimes called "angel" companies, or as I said before you can buy other art very cheaply. Once you have some of this type of royalty free artwork, you can use any graphics editing program, and most greeting card software programs are quite capable in this regard, to manipulate the images to make them original.

For some ideas on how to create original work using your scanner, please visit Scanning Objects.

In the long run, you will do much better in this business if your cards are original. So use what you see for ideas, but proceed to make the work your own.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Thank you so much for responding so quickly. I did check out the terms & conditions on both the CreatACard and PrintShop and unfortunately they do have copyrights on all their art.

It tells right in the t's & c's that it is prohibited to use for resale.

But thanks again and also thanks for giving me the idea to check this out for myself. I never thought to look it up right under my nose.

Thanks,

Lisa

Here's another article on copyrights.