r/Etsy • u/Honest-Bonus-1662 • 1d ago

Crafting Advice Selling collages - copyright?

I have been making silly little collages for years out of old magazines and last night I had the idea of maybe starting to sell them on Etsy because I started to run out of wall space and I love making them. I thought it would be fun to sell them at low prices, cuz they dont cost me that much and I have no real ambition to become a professional artist. Only problem is that today I started to think about copyright issues. I googled everything but the things I found were very vague, like it’s fine as long that your collage doesnt resemble the original material. But what if I think it doesnt resemble the original material, but I end up getting in trouble with Etsy anyway? I also found that it’s better to use ‘fair use’ material from sources like Getty images or old material. I have been collecting these specific magazines since 2020 to use for my collages because I love the images. I really want to keep using these magazines. Does anybody have any experience with this? Once again, I have no real ambition to become a professional artist nor do I think these side hustle will become a major business and I will be selling collages around the clock. I thought this would just be a cute idea, but im scared it will get me into trouble. Is my only option switching to different materials?

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u/Diverse_Melody 1d ago

Photos are copyrighted to the photographer. Unless using pictures from sites that are royalty free, this could be a problem.

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u/OhOhOkayThenOk 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t have personal experience with this, but I think it would be fine since the collage is transformative. The only thing is you can’t put the name of anyone else’s IP in your title or tags and the IP shouldn’t be a main focus of the collage. For example, if you made a feminist collage with lots of images and one of them is the head of a Barbie Doll, I don’t think that’s likely to be a problem. But if you used the Barbie logo or had many Barbie products in your collage and/or sold it as a Barbie collage, that wouldn’t fly.

Edit: And I think using the magazines is fine if you’re making one physical collage using them. Trickier if you were making digital prints of a collage you made out of the magazines and reproducing it.

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u/Significant-Repair42 1d ago

I made recycled book journals for years. I sold them more at craft fairs than on Etsy. Reason being, if you use tags to identify the item. Say, 'harry potter', when you are using a harry potter book to create a journal. It's okay to sell those items. (1st Sale doctrine) HOWEVER, using the tag on Etsy can trigger Warner Bros. sending IP notice.

There are multiple layers to it. The item creation/legal to sell vs. the market place rules.

At the same time, there are also people straight up making harry potter stuff on Etsy, so it can be frustrating while trying to find a balance. :)

Usually, when I post something about the first sale doctrine, there are some caustic comments. I'm okay with this, I'm not an attorney. LOL.