Copyrights?

Hi Guys,
I got a quick question. Would it be a problem if I post pictures of my tarot cards in any websites like instagram, Flickt, facebook, etc?
Or to be in the safe side should I contact the artists (companies?), so there would not be any illegal problems?
I rather be safe than sorry.

And sorry if this is a total different question, but do you let your sitters handle your OOP tarot cards or is that just for you to handle?
I'm just afraid to let anyone touch my tarot cards especially cards that cost me a lot of money. I'm afraid that they will damage it. It is the reason I keep it out of prying eyes.

This might depend on your jurisdiction, so take this with a grain of salt. As far as I know, if you're taking a picture and there are cards in it, it's fine. For example, if you take a picture of yourself holding a card, or if you take a picture of a spread laid out on a table. Something that isn't like an exact scan, basically.

I've also seen scans of cards being used without a problem, usually for review purposes you can do that. I think Lo Scarabeo openly authorized pictures of their decks to be used in reviews, blog posts, and so on. It goes without saying that attribution goes a long way to showing you're not trying to steal someone else's work and claim it as your own.

If you're trying to scan in and a whole deck and post it online then it gets trickier. You should probably ask for someone's permission unless their copyright has expired.

As to your last question, none of my decks are OOP, but if they were I'd probably be really careful with them. I might allow sitters to handle them if they were sitters I knew very well (like my family and close friends) but not just anyone. I'd probably keep them for readings I was doing alone, because I wouldn't want a deck I loved to get damaged without being able to just get another copy easily.

You should ask them, but I gather Lo Scarabeo allows reasonable usage of their images, with credit. USG is at the other end and absolutely does not, not sure where Llewelyn stands.

I only allow fellow collectors to handle my OOP decks.

Alta said:

You should ask them, but I gather Lo Scarabeo allows reasonable usage of their images, with credit. USG is at the other end and absolutely does not, not sure where Llewelyn stands.

I only allow fellow collectors to handle my OOP decks.

Click to expand...

What she said. Non-collectors have no idea of the damage they can cause by riffling, for instance...

Lil Red said:

Hi Guys,
I got a quick question. Would it be a problem if I post pictures of my tarot cards in any websites like instagram, Flickt, facebook, etc?
Or to be in the safe side should I contact the artists (companies?), so there would not be any illegal problems?
I rather be safe than sorry.

Click to expand...

Here is a link to Adam McLean's Weblog that you might find interesting. (Adam is believed to have the largest Tarot collection in the world!)
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/tarot/tarot_weblog.html
As you can see, Adam posts 3 very low res cards from each deck.

Note:
He no longer publishes tarot decks because of pirating from high resolution scans. He discusses this in his Weblog "Archive 4" thru June 2010.

Lil Red said:

And sorry if this is a total different question, but do you let your sitters handle your OOP tarot cards or is that just for you to handle?
I'm just afraid to let anyone touch my tarot cards especially cards that cost me a lot of money. I'm afraid that they will damage it.

Click to expand...

For me, I "usually" am the only one who handles my prized decks that are now OOP.
I do know some people do "personal" scans on their iPads which they carry around instead of the rare decks. I saw this a lot at BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium).

Copyrights are in place to protect the artists & the publishers. Without the artists & the publishers, most of us would not have Tarot decks, so it is important that their copyrights are not violated...