Is Tracing Illegal?

[LyleMills]

After reading a thread from one of the other posts that brought up this issue, I was wondering myself about this:

Is tracing a photograph for an illustration a form of copyright violation?

Obviously, if you took the photograph yourself, or if a client gave you the photograph along with permission to use it as reference in your work, then I would assume that tracing is OK. I have read The Complete Technical Illustrator book which has a chapter dedicated to this topic and how it is considered a viable method for creating a technical illustration. When it comes to tracing a photograph taken by someone else for which you have not been granted permission to use as reference, where does copyright come into play? I would think that because:

1. You are not using the actual image in your illustration.
2. You may change features of the object/subject in your illustration which makes it different/unique.
3. You are not manipulating the photograph.
4. You are creating an illustration (re: work of art) from a photograph.

tracing a photograph would not constitute copyright infringement and hence be OK. However, others disagree. Can anyone on this forum shed some light onto this issue which seems to have some very grey areas? Has anyone had to address this issue?

[JamesProvost]

Copyright infringement at this scale (small, compared to say, software piracy) would be fought out in civil court rather than criminal. In other words, the rights owner would have to learn of the infringement, identify the party responsible, (decide if you're worth pursuing), then sue you for either an injunction (an order for you to stop) and/or a judgement (you have to pay for damages).

Having been to court (as a plaintiff), I can tell you it's one hell of a process. It's certainly not something I'd invite on myself by risking a fair use/transformative work defence.It didn't work for Shepard Fairey (though, that case is a little more complicated).

Maybe I'll do a post about where to find unambiguously copyright-free reference materials...

[LyleMills]

Copyright infringement at this scale (small, compared to say, software piracy) would be fought out in civil court rather than criminal. In other words, the rights owner would have to learn of the infringement, identify the party responsible, (decide if you're worth pursuing), then sue you for either an injunction (an order for you to stop) and/or a judgement (you have to pay for damages).

Having been to court (as a plaintiff), I can tell you it's one hell of a process. It's certainly not something I'd invite on myself by risking a fair use/transformative work defence.It didn't work for Shepard Fairey (though, that case is a little more complicated).

Maybe I'll do a post about where to find unambiguously copyright-free reference materials...

Thanks for the info James. A post on where to find copyright free reference would be great!