what are the copyright issues with taking a picture with my camera of an image on TV, like a celebrity on a tv show, or a news piece. Any ideas how that works?
Very interesting dilemma. Does it work for a start? I mean a TV image refreshes at a frequency of 50 Hz - can a camera capture that? As you know the person who takes the photograph owns the copyright, but the rights to the still image on the screen are owned by the production company. In reality I think no TV production company would be interested in pursuing you over breaching their copyright, so I think the photo image probably belongs to you. I also have another recommendation - get a TV card for your PC if you want to capture TV images!
i think the above would apply, unless you was using the images to cause bad-press for the tv station and/or celeb (or whoever the pic is off).
Well, this is definitely a more complex issue than it appears at first. Firstly you will be infringing on the copyright of the TV station/show creators. Copyright protects the right to create derivative works, taking a screencapture/photo could be seen as a derivative work and would then be a breach of copyright. Secondly the celebrity has the right to control how their images are used, so you could run into issues there as well. Not to mention issues with set designers/graphic artists etc. I'm not saying that you will run intro trouble, but that the possibility exists that you could be seen as infringing on copyright. If you are planning on distributing these images you should be careful.
By taking a picture of an image on the TV screen, you are creating a copy of protected work. You don't own the rights to the picture. Fair use can come into play--if used right. For instance, watch a TV show and see how they talk about something on another network. When they do, they might show a still photo or play a very short (2-10 second) clip with CREDIT. Fair use is more than just using parts of something and giving credit. But, if you meet the criteria, it's allowable. For instance, I was listening to a radio show yesterday and they were laughing about a song on YouTube. They played about 15 seconds of the song and mentioned YouTube a few times. Warning: media companies do wrong things ALL the time. Don't assume that because a TV or radio show (or print media) did something, it's okay. Many times the offending party will come to a compromise with the offended party or both companies may "let it slide" if it's nothing major, because they would be in court for years and spend a lot of money. If you're a "little guy," the attitude of "letting it slide" isn't necessarily there, because you can't fight like a company with the cash for lawyers.