Let’s say I took a bunch of different characters from various media; a head, 2 arms, 2 legs and a torso, glued them together and then traced over to create a more homogenized image… Is that a new thing? A remix? Or ripping other’s work off?
I’ve just had this idea for a while (wanna try making my fursona from photos of a dog for the head and my own body for the body) and got curious if this proposed technique was done using others’ material would be a violation or if it would be more like a remix.
People can give you their best guesses, but without a court case and a ruling it is impossible to say what the answer will be with iron certainty.
My guess, for US law, would be based of the four factor balancing test used in determining fair use. The four factors are the nature of the use, the nature of the copyrighted material, the amount of the copyrighted material used, and the effect of the use on the value of the material.
If you are using the copyrighted works for a non-profit purpose that helps, if you are remixing them that helps, if you are using works that are not violating right of first publishing that helps.
Importantly copyright does not have to be enforced by the holder for them to retain full legal protection. What that means is even if the holder somehow became aware (which honestly is pretty doubtful for such a small individual use), they can simply choose not to pursue the matter. The resources that could go into pursuing a copyright case for such a use are probably going to be a lot more than any gain they’d get. Big IP holders have endless waves of people using their material, and their resources are better spent going after uses that are clearly trying to make or making a profit or distributing their copyrighted works.
The TLDR is yeah sure, it’s probably fine. If you somehow got the evil eye on you, in practical reality the first thing you’d get would be a C&D letter anyway.
Edit: Here is the relevant text in 17 U.S. Code § 107
That’s just it. This idea involves dancing very close to the fire, so anything could happen. The result may even depend on the other legal cases available in the area.
Fair use doesn’t even enter the picture unless it’s a copyright violation.
When you use someone else’s copyright work in a way that they could take you to court to stop you, you can in some situations argue that the way you infringed on their copyright should be allowed: that is, that your use of the thing was fair.
OP’s question smells like a software development question. Which would be well served by a straightforward answer of “if the parts you cut out are still protected by copyright, then your assembly and trace would be a derivative work”.
That would be an argument made in court, pursuant to the balancing test. You would be arguing that the use wasn’t actually infringement. Thats how fair use is determined.
That’s like asserting that a self-defense claim is an argument that you didn’t hit the other guy. You really did hit him (copyright infringement / assault), but you have a defense that admits the literal facts but absolves you of liability (fair use / self-defense.)
You don’t need to argue self-defense if you can convince the court that you didn’t actually hit the other guy.
The OP is asking about using portions of copy written works. Therefore if those works were used or not wouldn’t be at issue. What would be issue is if the use is fair use. Which again, goes back to the balancing test which would be decided in court if the rights holder pursues it.
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