South Dakota Intellectual Property Legal Questions

If you own a book and sell pages (not copies, but the actual pages) from the book you own, you have not copied anything, so there should be no copyright infringement. There have been legal actions in the past for activies modifying the art work of artists. Colorizing movies, altering the resolution, restoring art, etc. There may be a cause of action related to modifying art work (in this case, the art work is the book), but I have no knowledge of it applied to your hypothetical facts. Good luck, Todd... Read More

You can only get rights in a work protected by copyright if you have a written agreement from the person who created the work. It could be transferred as an assignment or as a "work made for hire." However, a "work made for hire" only applies to very specific types of work listed in the Copyright Act which are a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas. If you don't have a written agreement, you probably do not own the copyright in the graphic although you may have a license to use it, which does NOT require a written agreement.... Read More