How do you know if an illustration or graphic is public domain rather than protected by copyright?

Question

I am interested in using pictures from old books in collage-based "altered art," but don't want to be unethical. If something is not yet public domain, is it ok to use as long as I use the actual image clipped from the book rather than reproducing the image?

Answer 1

Try looking through the book to find the source/artist/date of the image. If you aren't sure, try researching it a bit on the interenet. Its better to be safe than sorry and I work with a LOT of historical images so I know from experience. If an image is NOT public domain, you could get into some big trouble :) If you want to message me the information, perhaps the book copyright year, name of the image, etc, I can try to look it up really quick.