Quote Originally Posted by nirofo View Post
I think you should brush up on copyright law, the captured image regardless of the method of capture, whether it be painting, photograph, sound, film, video etc, belongs to the person who captured it, they own the full copyright. Whilst the painter/photographer doesn't own a particular physical scenic view they do own the image they capture from that scene, the use of that image is their copyright by law, no one else has the right to that image unless given permission by the copyright owner. No two paintings or photographs are the same, even if the painting or photograph is of the same image it is more than likely it will have changed due to weather, seasons, time of day, movement etc. Therefore each image capture is unique and can be identified by various means if necessary.

Why do you think there are so many forgeries of well known paintings, why do so many advertising companies rip off photographers, it's a very lucrative business if they can get away with it. That's why it's imperative that photographers who willingly post their photographs on web pages such as this one, so that others can enjoy them, are courteously asked if they will give permission for the use of their material. Not very hard to do is it?

nirofo.
I think you failed to see my point. If you and I took a photo on the same day with relatively similar level of equipment at the same position of a beautiful scene and you posted your photo on here. If I painted a picture based on my photo and not yours then you would have a cat in hell's chance of proving a breach of copyright. It would be arrogance on your part to assume that no one could produce a similar result...