[Tom Edgerton]

I believe that the gray area in the current law is that usage from source material is in violation if one can tell easily when viewing the new work that a particular source work was used.

Carol's heads up on a change to relax the law is particularly disturbing in that it's hard enough now to keep someone from stealing from your work. The law is always trailing behind new technology, such as the web.

Two books I would recommend highly for discussions/explanations of copyright law are "Legal Guide for the Visual Artist" by Tad Crawford, and the Graphic Artists Guild's "Pricing and Ethical Guidelines."

It's been a while since I saw them advertised, but you could try Amazon.com.

Regards--TE