This was covered in another tribe--Tattered Shreds, I believe. Don't remember the entire arguement, but contrary to my understanding previous there is no sort of "fair use" arguement. You are recommended to maybe it was use only 1/10th of hte image or to shrink it to 1/10th the size. My gut tells me that if you aren't selling they aren't going to go after you, but I don't knwo how right that is. If it's satire or parody you might have some protection. If you do run afoul of those laws they could confiscate your work. I would suggest you go to that tribe and poke around (if it wasn't tattered shreds it was dealing with collage anyway.)

Copyright is a big, murky subject. The bottom line is: if your work is personal, not to be sold, you can use whatever you want. If you sell it or include it in a show or public venue, you must give credit for anything you've used in the work that is not copyright-free - images from magazines, etc.

The link below is a Yahoo group that may help you to unserstand a bit better. I'm sure if you search here you can find a tribe on the subject, too.

groups.yahoo.com/group/Cop...r_Artists/

www.funnystrange.com has very good straightforward copyright advice for collage artists.

If you didn't take the picture, it is copyright whoever did.
If you didn't write the phrase, it is copyright whoever did.
Copyright exists the moment you, or anyone else creates something.

Fair Use is still quite viable in today's market.
The main things to be kept in mind are:
Profit,
Value,
Confusion. (PVC...think of it as the Copyright pipeline)

If you profit from the work of someone else, that is a No-no
If your art includes the work of someone else, in such a way that their work is devalued (as in, you make collages out of prints by an artist, and although you don't sell them, you give away free copies of your collage, the artist whose prints you make them from can sue you, because your free copies are everywhere, driving down the value of his works), that is a No-no.
If your art is so similar to the works of another that people might confuse your work for theirs, that is a no-no.

There is no percentage. You CAN use works created by others, but you tread a fine line. Can the viewer recognize that the face in the collage is from a photograph by "x?" Is the phrase exactly as so-and-so wrote and published it? Does your painting of a dog in 2 primary colors look remarkably like the style "BigArtist" uses to create their paintings of dogs, with the same colors? You're flirting with disaster.

That is why most artists will tell you to simply create your own works, and not use the work of others. Citing the sources of your work does not protect you, unless you can provide permission from those artists cited.

You can USE anything. The trick is to what extent, and to use it in such a manner that no part stands out in its recognizability. Anything with Disney items on it, for example, are open to copyright infringement, because Disney licenses permission, and is easily recognized. But, if you have a small Donald Duck figurine in a collage of Childhood Cartoon Icons, with 30 other recognizable figures, and they are not doing anything "evil" or libelous, and you sell that collage, it is doubtful that you will be sued, because that one work, although providing you a profit from its sale, does not devalue Disney, nor confuse the viewer that this might be Donald Duck subject matter. However, you could not print a thousand posters or t-shirts with the image without Disney's permission...

There are dozens of web-sites out there that discuss the various issues, as well as at least one or two lawyers with their own webpages dealing with the issue. Until you ARE somewhat versed in the subject (I used to work for an attorney, which helped me learn a lot about it), you are best off using your own camera, or pencils/paints/whatever to create the images you want.

~Maddy