When it comes to object stock, where does one draw the line on copyright infringement?

I recently received a comment on an object that I had taken a photo of, that said submitting the photo as stock was copyright infringement on the person who made the object. The photo has been removed from my gallery, as I don't wish to be banned from DA for copyright infringement.

But where do you draw the line when it comes to object stock?

Let's face it, many times when we take a photo of an object, the object was not made by us. Still life photographers often use objects or pieces of art that were not made by them to make up their photo. Is this copyright infringement?

I generally do body stock, but have recently taken some object stock photos. I have several lovely dragon pieces around my home, and some of them I photographed to play with in photoshop myself, but considered loading them to my stock account for others to use, but is this copyright infringement since I did not make the piece?

Here is an example of one of the photos in my scraps section. I've seen similar photos of other dragon statues on DA, but are these photos of these statues legal?

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I've considered photographing the swords and daggers in my collection to offer as object stock, however they are not made by me, so do I dare?

I've considered photographing some of the carousel horse ornaments that were on my christmas tree, but I didn't make them, so is this a copyright infringement?

What about the pretty oriential jar sitting on my desk or the unicorn snow globe? Neither are made by me.

Should I remove the pictures of the african carousel animals that I took from my gallery? Or the few other object stock photos I've submitted?

So where do we draw the line on copyright infringement when it comes to photographing objects? DA has an objects stock category, but is this only for objects that we ourselves have made? Or is this for photos of whatever objects we please?

Your comments, thoughts, ideas, and/or help are greatly apprectiated, as I'm a little lost as to what to do right now! The last thing I want to do is get banned from DA due to object stock!!

Thanks!!

Mistress Kristin


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