Public Domain Tarot Images

tarotbear

Chimera Dust said:
I don't know which cards would be immediately recognisable to non-readers, other than Death and the Devil because they show up in pop culture so often. I guess the Magician and the High Priestess could be it.

The Hermit ... :surprise:

Grizabella

tarotbear said:
That would be a pretty damn big pin!

If you were to take one (1) Tarot card - say The Magician - and turn it into a beaded pin 1.5 x 3" you would not be breaking any copyright laws because you would be making one (1) copy FOR YOUR OWN USE. If you made two and sold one - you are breaking the law because that would fall under 'commercial use' and any time money exchanges hands it's 'commercial.' If you make 3 pins and give two way for free you are 'manufacturing' - and that still falls under the copyright laws.

Not a lawyer here; just my two cents about understanding copyrights and art.

Read this and this.

I'm familiar with the making of more than one and selling or giving it. I think what I'm going to do is make some Tarot images of my own design. That way I'm safe.

I can't really add any copyright or anything on such a small space. What I have in mind is about twice the size of a business card or maybe a smidge bigger.My safest rout is making my own images. I'm just lazy and was hoping to find something already made I could use.

tarotbear

Grizabella said:
I can't really add any copyright or anything on such a small space.

You don't have to physically put a copyright notice on one piece of jewelry that you are making for yourself to wear.

Pam O

Grizabella said:
Can anyone help me with what Tarot images are in the public domain. The only one I can think of----and I'm not even sure of that one---is the RWS. Are there any others? The reason I ask has to do with my crafting work.

Here is info you might find interesting:

"Q. What is the US copyright status of a work published in 1909?

A. Any work published prior to 1922, regardless of the country of publication, the citizenship of the author, whether it was registered or not, is in the public domain in the United States. No further copyright claims can be made on that work, and any attempt to prosecute someone for use of that work would be thrown out of a copyright court.

Works published in the US today have a copyright term of life + 70. This is not retroactive, so US books previously in the public domain in the US did not get their copyrights restored when the new term of copyright was enacted"

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm

tarotbear

Pam O said:
Here is info you might find interesting:

"Q. What is the US copyright status of a work published in 1909?

A. Any work published prior to 1922, regardless of the country of publication, the citizenship of the author, whether it was registered or not, is in the public domain in the United States. No further copyright claims can be made on that work, and any attempt to prosecute someone for use of that work would be thrown out of a copyright court.

Works published in the US today have a copyright term of life + 70. This is not retroactive, so US books previously in the public domain in the US did not get their copyrights restored when the new term of copyright was enacted"

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm

I can't help but notice that the article is constantly littered with the comment 'In My Opinion' ... which means Nothing in a court of law. The law that created the 'Prior to 1922' did not become a law until about 50 years later, and in that time USGS did have the copyright legally sewn up. The Article is correct in that the RWS should have gone into the public domain in 2012 ... but due to some legal wrangling that will not happen until 2021 (+70 years after Pixie's death, not Waite's heirs).

IN MY OPINION - it's only another 6 years from now. If you were USGS you'd be fighting tooth and nail to hold onto the copyright as long as legally possible, too, I suspect.

tarotbear

BTW - in this email I received from the VP of USGS Uses & Permissions Department (yes, TB is a staunch supporter of USGS' right to keep the RWS copyright as long as possible):

"All people/companies wishing to use Rider-Waite or any versions thereof, altered or unadulterated, must seek permission from US Games.

We give out permissions, fee-for-use, all the time. Most commercial uses involve fees. Non-commercial do not…like decoration for a website or Card of the Day on a site."

Pam O

"The trademark US Games holds appears to be only on the name "Rider Waite Tarot Deck" and " Rider Waite Tarot" and NOT the images."

For example, what about Carol Herzer's Illuminated Tarot?
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/illuminated/
From Carol's website:
".....Among other things he sent me a black and white majors set of the RWS deck, a copy used in Europe for students of tarot to work with. I made two paintings of each of the majors. the turned out very well, and so I decided to go on and complete the entire 78 card deck. ...."
http://www.soul-guidance.com/tarotdecks/page_28.htm

And SevenStars decks, including the Deck of the Bastard:
Deck of the Bastard Pamela Colman-Smith & Carlo DellaRocca & Jean-Baptiste Alliette & Seven Stars
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/deck-of-the-bastard/

Solandia is EXTREMELY consciensous of copyright laws.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=141288
"Due to issues surrounding copyright infringement, Solandia, the owner of Aeclectic, has decided that she no longer wishes to host the "Sites that Show the Whole Deck" thread. So the thread has been permanently removed."

Solandia would not feature any decks in "Tarot Decks" link at the top of every page here if there was a question that a deck was in violation of US Games copyright... She protects herself, and Aeclectic.
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/list.shtml

ETA: Another tidbit from the internet: "U.S. Games Systems, Inc. has a copyright claim on an updated version of the deck published in 1971. This copyright, however, only covers new material added to the preexisting work (for example, designs on the card backs and the box). In accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom (the country of original publication of the cards), the deck is now in the public domain as of 2012, corresponding to seventy years from the end of the year in which the copyright holder, Arthur Edward Waite, died. Pamela Coleman Smith produced the art for the cards as a work for hire, so the deck copyright belonged solely to Arthur Edward Waite."

NOTE: Now since I am not a practicing lawyer, this is all obviously "opinion" as maybe any spoken, written words...

tarotbear

Pam O said:
Solandia is EXTREMELY consciensous of copyright laws.

"Due to issues surrounding copyright infringement, Solandia, the owner of Aeclectic, has decided that she no longer wishes to host the "Sites that Show the Whole Deck" thread. So the thread has been permanently removed."

Solandia would not feature any decks in "Tarot Decks" link at the top of every page here if there was a question that a deck was in violation of US Games copyright... She protects herself, and Aeclectic.

If you look back to the second half of my statement quoted in post # 16 - you'll have your answer.