Copyright on pictures of audio equipment

[Mr. T]

Hi

I have an idea for some sweat and t-shirts with print of different vintage audio equipment, but is there any copyright if im taking the pictures myself ?

I mean lets say im gonna take some cool pictures of a neumann (the manufactor) microphone, edit it in photoshop and then print it on a t-shirtl legal ?

Thanks a lot!
Thomas

[officer_dibble]

I think you might run into problems. A few years back - for St Patricks - I produced some iPod ad themed beer tees for mates. The Guinness logo on the glass was partly obscured - but it still got knocked back by the copyright team at CafePress. I 'shopped the logo out and no problems.

If the focus of the tee is the microphone then I'd definitely get permission from the manufacturer. But it may vary from country to country. Might be better to draw up a generic vintage microphone in Illustrator and use that.

Here in the UK, for example, I think it's OK to spoof or satirize logos/visual identities providing it's obvious.

[webgal]

You might have some leeway with vintage, though. For instance, the da vinci drawings of anatomy are in that gray area. New medical art is not.

I forgot to add. If you take your own photos of vintage you might be ok.