What are the general Terms of Use for historical paintings?

[cekobico]

For an example sake...The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Or the Birth of Venus perhaps. Or maybe The Creation of Adam.


Is it ok to include them..., say as parallax mapping, idk, maybe have your party of heroes suddenly stuck on a painting and have to fight their way through. I'm talking about commercial games here. 

 

[NPC]

Most of them are in public domain, which means they can be used without credit. However, not all photos of them are (strange as it sounds).


All of Wikimedia Commons is public domain and can be used (this link leads to a Birth of Venus one):


https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=birth+of+venus&title=Special:Search&go=Go&uselang=en&searchToken=6kjipmur8x3rx7hz7za63g8b7

 

[oktchau]

If it's public domain, yeah, you're free to use it.

 

[Euphony]

Typically a piece of art will enter the public domain once the artist has been dead for 70 years, but that's not a universal rule. The law varies by country and sometimes there are descendants of the artist who retain copyright. Also consider that any image you find of the art online was taken by a photographer who might have their own terms of use. So I wouldn't automatically assume that something is free to use just because it's old. Play it safe and research each piece of art on a case-by-case basis.

 

[cekobico]

I see. Thanks guys!


One more question. 


I found another painting, Pine Trees by Hasegawa Touhaku. While it's listed as public domains, the Permission table said "Copyright Expired"...what does that particularly means? Reading the whole "Reuse" page about it, got me baffled; so it would be great if someone can put that down in a layman's terms for me. 

 

[Euphony]

Copyright only lasts a certain amount of time before it expires and has to be renewed (like I said, typically X amount of years after the artist's death). No one holds any rights to "Pine Trees" because the artist has been dead for centuries and his descendants haven't renewed the copyright. Simply put, yes, that painting is in the public domain.

 

[cekobico]

I see. Thank you for the explanation ^^