Last updated on January 3, 2023
UPDATED Copyright infringement is a federal crime! This is how copyright law protects your cartoons and artwork.
Fair Use for Images, vs Stealing them
I recently had a problem with an unenlightened, uneducated, and low-class site who stole a lot of my cartoons.
They are a “humor” site, and they stole many dozens of my cartoons (which explains why this site was down for 10 days). Then this pron site for teens hacked several of my websites (thank you, FBI, for looking into this!) I will deal with that site separately, when my investigation is done, but because they were so very stupid, I wanted to explain Fair Use to my smart readers here.
Very briefly, there are 4 rules of Fair use that are easy to apply for any graphic, and always work:
1. Purpose (entertainment, or educational? Parody might be ok. Education always passes the test!)
2. Type of work (news, fiction, art)
3. Amount used in comparison to whole work
4. Monetary effect on creator
Examples of legal Fair Use for Cartoons, Music, and Books
Here are some examples of legal Good Fair Use from the excellent Stanford Fair Use site :
- quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review
- summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report
- copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or
- copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case.
Stanford added:
The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public reaps benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material.
(But you’re not out a penny, and you get some good, maybe important links and referrals. They should LINK to you as well.)
In other words, when you borrow copyrighted material for your personal page, you use only enough of the article, art, or cartoon, to give a fair review of it. Your purpose is to REVIEW, not take. In the case of art or a cartoon, you would link to the cartoon, or include only a part of it . (This is why you see just a detail or portion of classic paintings in art books).
If your purpose is to entertain your audience with the entire cartoon, or be entertained, buy the damn cartoon, or else it’s copyright infringement. :)
A good example of copyright infringement of cupcake art
The author at Creativity Fused thought it would be fun to post a lot of paintings of cakes (by the wonderful Wayne Thiebaud) for her/his birthday.
I love Wayne Thiebaud’s work! Love the structure, color, and especially subjects of food and other objects! But….Creativity Fused’s page of paintings of cakes is STEALING.
There, fixed it for ya, CF. The title of Thiebaud’s painting is “4 Cupcakes.” I still get to enjoy two cupcakes in my blog with this clip, and I also follow correct copyright. :)
How I follow Fair Use Copyright to protect my cartoon reviews
In the title bar at the top of this blog page, Hot Spots, you can see the complete title : Best editorial cartoons….interpretation and explanation included. Most people don’t understand political cartoons, as shown by the fact that over 50% of my visitors are from schools & universities.This blog is educational, which is a huge part of Fair Use. I review fictional cartoons based on the news, I use a small, not printable size, and I always link to, mention by name, and otherwise promote the creator and the publisher. (I would also take down any cartoon that a cartoonist does not want displayed here, but no one has ever requested that.)
In addition, I get PERMISSION from the publisher or creator. Because I am reviewing cartoons (just like a book reviewer does) this is Fair Use, even if I don’t get permission. But I do it, anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.
I haven’t done many LA Times cartoons reviews recently, but I notice Daryl Cagle copied my format in his blog. He, too, picked a few cartoons by others to review each week. (However, this is very time-consuming and a lot of work, so he doesn’t do it anymore, and just posts a slideshow!)
Of course, there are some sites that have free clip art, or Creative Commons images, and a lot of free clip art comes with some software programs. Or you could draw something yourself. :) So you have those alternatives, too.
If you lift cartoons for any other reason than Fair Use – because you feel stupid that day, you’re lazy, you don’t have a subject to write about, you’re jealous of cartoonists, you have a big hole in your post that needs an image, or you have a liberal hate site – you are breaking copyright law and can be prosecuted. And you will be. Not to mention how embarrassing it is when your server tells you they are removing the copyrighted material you took! (It’s illegal to keep stolen goods – ie, copyright material – on a server, even a private one. They all know that.)
Q & A on Copyright for Cartoons from Facebook
What about if I use the picture on Facebook? Link to it or Like it! It will still show up as a thumbnail on your Timeline. Otherwise, buy the cartoon. There’s no freebie for Facebook.
But I left the cartoonist’s signature in there! So what? How does that pay her bills that month? How does he know where it’s been used? If it’s showing up everywhere, she just lost a sale and do you really want the cartoonist to spend hours tracking you down and telling everyone what you did?
I got the cartoon from someone else. On Facebook. Don’t be a doobie. The other person is either ignorant or a thief, but you don’t have to be!
I found the cartoon on Google images. Other people must be using it. No, that just means the artist or cartoonist was generous enough to post it on his or her website for you to enjoy, and Google scraped it. Google doesn’t own any cartoons!!! Every cartoon belongs only to the cartoonist. No cartoon that you find on Google is free. Let me repeat that: NO CARTOON ON GOOGLE IS FREE.
Buy Cartoons to use for Powerpoint, articles, news, blogs, etc.
The great majority of readers will want to buy cartoons anyway for their powerpoint, presentations, newspapers, textbooks, etc. Fair Use criteria is difficult to meet, and it’s easy to prove negligence. Also, most readers and writers are good people! It’s quick & simple to buy cartoons, and here’s how. Thanks for understanding, & feel free to ask questions!
