Is Jason Levinthal Infringing copyright laws?

US fair use laws state the if the author puts the work onto a public a domain, as long as the work using the images doesn't infringe on the original authors rights or impedes their right to do whatever they want with the work, the work can be used reasonably.

What's with these threads? Is some other company angry with Mr. levinthal?

don't worry about it and just buy the damn skis.

youRsmellAWhat's with these threads? Is some other company angry with Mr. levinthal?

this. What is this shit. Dude is awesome. Done a lot for the sport and just stoked on life. Fuck the haters

Back in the day he had to change the name of a skiboard from Jedi, and take a KISS graphic off a ski.

I don't think op is hater, just confused on how jlev was hetting his images legally... But now that we have determined all is fair, I think op has found what he has asked for...

Interesting question OP. Intrigued, I did a smidge of research about "fair use" and how it might apply to J Skis graphics. Here's what I found:

Fair use is a legal exception to the exclusive rights of the owner of a copyrighted work. Basically, it's an attempt to find a balance between the rights of the copyright owners and the interests of the public. Fair use allows for "limited and reasonable" uses, as long as the use doesn't infringe on the owner's rights.

Fair use is used mostly for things like news reporting, criticism, comment, teaching, research, parody etc. A classic example would be a product review: You're writing a review about a ski boot, so you snag a (copyrighted) photo from the ski boot company's website, and use it in your review. If you're providing a comment or critique, you're allowed this "fair use" for the benefit of the public.

Here are the 4 factors courts are supposed to consider in determining whether something is fair use or not:

(1) The purpose and character of the use, including whether you’ve made a new transformative work, and whether your use is commercial.
(2) The nature of the original work, such as whether it is more factual than fictional.
(3) How much of the original work was used.
(4) Whether the new use affects the potential market for the original work.

J would have a harder case to make for fair use because he's putting the images on a commercial product, but since his graphics are all collages, and he's making limited-edition runs, he has some other "fair use" avenues to follow. Collages that "transform" their contents into something that doesn't resemble the original material can be considered fair use.

One one site I found this quote, some of which sounds applicable to J's designs:

"collages that have more of the following characteristics are more likely to qualify as fair use:
*The collage incorporates many different materials from many different sources.
*The materials are juxtaposed or arranged in ways that create new visual and conceptual effects, the more different from the effect of the original materials, the better.
*The collage does not feature a copyrighted work as the central focus or dominant image. Only portions of copyrighted materials are used, rather than the entire image.
*The collage is a one-of-a-kind piece of fine art, or published in a limited edition of fine art prints"


So basically, it could be legal, but anyone holding a copyright to one of the images that shows up on a J Ski could still send J a cease and desist letter demanding that he stop his usage of that image or face legal action. Then either the courts get to figure out whether it is, in fact, fair use, or--more likely--J just doesn't drop the ski with said graphic. After all he's only making what, 100 pairs of them?

Companies getting into trouble over their collage graphics has happened numerous times over the years in the ski industry. I'm sure some people on NS could tell some stories about all the skis with graphics that never got released.


my use of this image here would be considered fair use:

whether it is fair use on the J Skis site would be more debatable



Sources:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copyright-fair-use-and-how-it-works-for-online-images/

https://graphicartistsguild.org/tools_resources/fair-use-or-infringement

All that said, I'm sure J-Lev has a very good legal grasp of what he is doing, and will proceed to school me in following posts.

Great post Ethan -- thanks for taking the time to do some research. It's definitely an interesting question, and something I've considered before. I'll be curious to here what J has to say.

With that being said, I think those collage terms cover most of his skis, minus the Tropic Thunder, which features one image as the dominant image, at least in my opinion.

There a custom Google searches where it only finds open license pics. Maybe he used that but idk.

Maybe it's just because I'm a skiier but I can't see my self getting mad at some chill guy who makes skis just because my cool artwork made the cut to be on his skis. But seriously tho, why get mad because someone likes your work enogh to put on something that people will have fun on?

No master plan or legal strategy here. Yeah some of the few skis I make follow what's been happening in skateboarding for 30 years now

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/727496/-Freedom-Rock--ski-graphic-creation

JLevNo master plan or legal strategy here. Yeah some of the few skis I make follow what's been happening in skateboarding for 30 years now

I smell a master plan. You aren't fooling ME!

have you ever thought about the fact that those are just promotional videos and they probably dont just cut and paste from google seeing that the quality of the images wouldnt be that good anyways.

theabortionatorthis. What is this shit. Dude is awesome. Done a lot for the sport and just stoked on life. Fuck the haters

it's a completely reasonable question to ask, no one's "hating." though i do like the idea of a defense in court of "your honor, why you hatin?"

but then, i think that may be jlev's out here. i sort of doubt he's actually 100% in the clear legally but the small production runs and relatively small business period makes me think it wouldn't be worth anyone's time to attack him for it. like ESB said, there are definitely grey areas but i have a hard time thinking he's totally fine legally taking things like arnold or the tpb boys and just throwing them on products he sells

but again, yeah i don't think anyone is going to get their panties in a bunch over it. though, like someone said, back in the day their Jedi skiboard (what a sick name for a ski though!) had to get changed, and that KISS ski got taken to task (oh, KISS is a bunch of douches? you don't say!)

RubberSoulit's a completely reasonable question to ask, no one's "hating." though i do like the idea of a defense in court of "your honor, why you hatin?"

but then, i think that may be jlev's out here. i sort of doubt he's actually 100% in the clear legally but the small production runs and relatively small business period makes me think it wouldn't be worth anyone's time to attack him for it. like ESB said, there are definitely grey areas but i have a hard time thinking he's totally fine legally taking things like arnold or the tpb boys and just throwing them on products he sells

but again, yeah i don't think anyone is going to get their panties in a bunch over it. though, like someone said, back in the day their Jedi skiboard (what a sick name for a ski though!) had to get changed, and that KISS ski got taken to task (oh, KISS is a bunch of douches? you don't say!)

It was just the multiple threads

I asked Jlev about this a few months back on ask.fm

I don't think it would be worth a companies time to attempt to sue a small company like J skis, they're not in competing markets nor are they having negative conations attached to the ski.

*TACO-DOG*don't worry about it and just buy the damn skis.

.... Yeah What this dude said! Don't worry about it!