Purpose of U.S. Copyright Law:
Copyright is the lawful right of an artist, or other creator to control the use of his or her work by others. A copyrighted work may not be duplicated by others without the creator's permission. Copyright does not protect ideas, nor does it protect facts. It protects only the form in which ideas or facts are expressed. However, copyrights expire after a certain period. Nevertheless, there are exceptions to this rule, notably the fair use doctrine, which allows unauthorized use of a copyrighted work. The law allows certain limited uses of copyrighted material by others, without the creator's permission. However, the era of the electronic environment presents society with new forms of mediums, and even calls into question the concept of works from all mediums. The courts are struggling to keep up with new technology, and rely on the opinions from experts on how the law should confront these new changes. “In 1998, Congress adopted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a that criminalizing acts that disable or circumvent technology.” (Middleton, p.258) A work that is available electronically is as eligible for copyright protection as a work in any other areas.
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Designer need to select material with caution. Often the materials will be copyrighted. So, your unauthorized use of those materials would be copyright infringement unless your collage qualifies as fair use. Collage artists should also be aware of potential trademark rights that might be associated with their collage materials. Trademarks or other symbols that represent the commercial source of products or services. Sometimes visual images can be trademarks, such as Coca-Cola. If you use these in your collages, there may be some risk of trademark infringement. However, trademark law also has exceptions for non-competitive