Q: Under Israeli copyright law can I take someone else's copyrighted photograph and turn it into a work of art? What about the converse, if I take a work of art and make photographs of it?
A: While the Copyright Act (2007) grants the right to make a copy or derivative work to the owner of the copyright, it also permits "fair use" of a copyrighted image. Borrowing from the law in the United States, it states in Section 19 that:
In determining whether a use made of a work is fair within the meaning of this section the factors to be considered shall include, inter alia, all of the following: (1) the purpose and character of the use; (2) the character of the work used; (3) the scope of the use, quantitatively and qualitatively, in relation to the work as a whole; (4) the impact of the use on the value of the work and its potential market.(For a blog post on a 2009 decision in the case of Football Association Premier League (FAPL) v. Ploni, permitting unlicensed streaming of sporting events, see here. And for a fair use checklist, see here.)
