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Hi guys.

My buddy Steve paints picture frames. He sells them on Etsy. He was considering incorporating portions of miniatures into the frames and painting them. He would thus be using partial miniatures as embellishments. As long as he cited his sources, would this fall under fair use as the Miniatures are not being resold as themselves, but used as materials in another artistic piece which would then be sold?

It's complicated, and depends a lot on what he is doing. If he is selling on miniatures that he paid for, and they happen to be mounted on a picture frame, then it would seem to be very similar to what anyone who sells painted miniatures is doing. If he is reproducing the frames, such as recasting them, then that is likely not okay. There might be some other legal grey areas regarding who owns the copyright to his artwork, but that's probably not an issue, unless someone starts copying his stuff and he wants to take them to court, or he claims the sculpts as his own. A lot might also depend on the amount of production. If he is selling millions of them then someone might take an interest and find something to sue over. But a handful of custom frames, I doubt anyone will care regardless.

Be careful with "citing sources", you don't want to accidentally write something that might be misconstrued as trademark infringement, such as "Games Workshop Picture Frames" etc..

If he's buying them, I don't see an issue. Smacks has the potential issues pretty well covered.

 lord marcus wrote:
Hi guys.

My buddy Steve paints picture frames. He sells them on Etsy. He was considering incorporating portions of miniatures into the frames and painting them. He would thus be using partial miniatures as embellishments. As long as he cited his sources, would this fall under fair use as the Miniatures are not being resold as themselves, but used as materials in another artistic piece which would then be sold?

don't need to cite the sources, as long as the product being used is not from being recasted, in fact it is better if you left the name out sine they might think you are trying to say it is an official GW item.

Your buddy should be okay to go ahead however I'll be the 'dad' in this thread.

If he wants a definitive answer he should consult with a legal professional.

Roger. He asked me because I deal with miniatures more than he does, but I had no clue, figured I'd ask around.