I just purchased a book from Dover Publications entitled "3200 Old Time Cuts and Ornaments", (The ISBN is 0486417328), and it clearly states in the synopsis on the back cover that the content is "copyright-free".
However, on the inside of the book, in the front matter, it states as follows:
"This book belongs to the Dover pictorial archive series. You may use the designs and illustrations for graphics and crafts applications, free and without special permission, provided that you include no more than ten in the same publication or project.
"However, republication or reproduction of any illustration by any other graphic service, whether it be in a book or in any other design resource, is strictly prohibited."
Is this a legal action on their part, or is this a false copyright claim?
The content of this book is public domain, but the book itself, Dover's "compilation" of "old
time cuts and ornaments," can be protected by copyright for the arrangement itself, where a "minimum of creativity" is involved. Does that prohibit you from using more than 10 of these old time cuts? No, that's a bogus restriction on your public domain rights.
Please see the link below that address a Dover work, maybe this one, and this exact question.
Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.
I don't know what "Old Time Cuts" are but will assume they're pictures or graphics of some sort that can be traced or copied somehow and then use to create crafts. Which, to me, means that there is a very, very large universe of public domain "Cuts" out there.
Dover has selected 3200 public domain "Cuts" for its book. And has, apparently, decided that if anyone takes more than 10 and publishes them in something else that it would take offense and -- though not stated -- assert that its copyright in its compilation of 3200 has been infringed. That is NOT a frivolous claim and may just be copyright infringement -- especially if the ones Dover selected are not readily available elsewhere.
But that's not what I think you want to do. You do not, I don't think, want to publish your own book, booklet, or pamphlet of "Cuts" but rather use those from the Dover book to create crafts. Perfectly lawful.
I also think it's perfectly law to use ten or more in the same "project" if "project" means creating crafts. If "project" means taking ten or more of the cuts selected by Dover and then compiling them into a publication and then selling the publication then we're back having to deal with Dover's non-frivolous infringement claim.
My bottom line is that you should use the "Cuts" to create crafts. If you want to publish your own book of "Cuts" then you need find your own. If you don't want to and would prefer to use the ones that Dover located and published then you need to speak with a copyright attorney.
It's not a 'crafts' book, it's a clip-art book. From a book with 3200 cuts, 11 would hardly be considered an infringement of their creative anthologizing public domain materials. Their legitimate concern would be, having done the work of creating the anthology, that someone would create a competitive product. 10 cuts would not be such a product. Not sure about 100. But for the use you have in mind, I agree that Dover would have no action against you.
I disagree with Attorney Koman. There are far too many cases where, to a layman, only a de minimus amount of a work was copied but yet a court rules -- as a matter of law -- that the copying was an infringement.
The copyrighted "work" at issue here is the selection and arrangement of the 3200 public domain images. It would be a mistake to disregard the "selection" element -- which, in a universe of countless images that Dover could have selected for inclusion in the book, takes on significant meaning.
As for the "arrangement" of the images, it cannot even be questioned that the literal copying and reproduction of the book's 11 fireplace images [or apple, or rose, or tree, etc. images] would infringe that section of the book's selection and arrangement of those images.
If your intent is to republish the images, you need to speak with a copyright attorney.
