QUESTION
Is it legal to take a picture of or scan a magazine cover for the purpose of selling that magazine?
Asked on Jun 20th, 2013 on Entertainment Law - California
More details to this question:
I'm considering selling magazine back issues on eBay and on a website I own. Nearly every magazine sold on eBay includes some kind of picture of it, or scan of the cover. However, the cover of most magazines is a copyrighted work, and hence the copyright owner has rights regarding its reproduction. There seems to be little issue doing this on eBay, possibly due to the scale, but what about an independent website? In general, if I'm taking a picture of a magazine, or scanning its cover, with the only purpose being that I am advertising the sale of the physical magazine by showing a picture of it, is this allowed? If it is allowed, are there things I must do on/to the image, like for example make it of sufficiently low resolution that the value of the image itself has negligible commercial value taken by itself? Thanks for your consideration.
2 ANSWERS
You are permitted to place a "thumbnail" photo on a website for the purpose of giving potential buyers an idea of what you are offering. The image should not be the same size or image quality as the item itself. You don't want people to be able to download the image instead of purchasing the magazine.
Answered on Jun 21st, 2013 at 11:50 AM
Susan Marie Basko
I think for this sales purpose, this is probably legal. This sounds like a fair use to me. I suppose making it low enough resolution that it is not in and of itself a work of art, it is probably okay. I say "probably," because with copyright trolls all over, anything can happen.
Answered on Jun 20th, 2013 at 9:29 PM