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Is it legal to make and sell portraits of well-known people?
My portraits are small watercolours that are part of an art show. Each portrait is paired with a piece of advice about life that the person is quoted to have said. Some of them are people I know and have gotten their permission; others are well-known people from history; and still others are living celebrities.
My question is: is it illegal for me to make a profit by selling these paintings in the gallery, i.e. am I setting myself up for litigation?
Also, some of the photo references I've used are probably copyrighted, could this be an issue?
I live in Canada if that matters.
All artwork and photos are copyrighted, unless they are like 100 years old and even then, people might have bought the copyright to them.
The only other time there is no copyright is when the owner specifically says and allows the images to be used freely by anyone for any purpose, which is almost unheard of.
There are some times when things can be used for "educational purposes" and so on. But even then you can get into trouble. Basically you need to get written permission by whoever produced the work you are copying.
I'm not sure about using the celebrities image to make profit. This happens all the time but I have a feeling it is not technically legal.
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