If I reference a medical textbook or website for hand drawing bones is that considered copyright infringement?

Question

I can't quite figure this one out. I am not copying a custom piece of work, I am copying something that is available in nature, bones. I am also not tracing it, I am drawing by hand using them as a reference for accuracy. So, is that considered copyright infringement? Does it depend on how similar my drawings are to the ones I visually copied?

So if I look at a medical website or book and see a knee bone, then I draw one on paper or in a graphics editing tool by looking, with my eyes, at the referenced image, is that going to get me in trouble somehow?

I mean, surely I don't have to go find my own skeleton to draw from... right??

Answer 1

This is dodging the intent of the question a bit, but you could use the original Gray's Anatomy illustrations sources at Bartleby and Wikimedia. They're from the 1918 edition and are generally regarded as being in the public domain (IANAL).

Answer 2

Well, depending on the copyright license, medical drawings are treated equal to any other subject being drawn.

Here is a question about making drawings using photographs as a reference.

From a case ruling quoted on that site:

"To prove infringement, a plaintiff with a valid copyright must demonstrate that: (1) the defendant has actually copied the plaintiff's work; and (2) the copying is illegal because a substantial similarity exists between the defendant's work and the protectible elements of plaintiff's"

An interpretation of this could be: the pose, shading, angle, etc are "protectible elements", while human anatomy itself isn't. (But we're not lawyers!)

If your drawings aren't too blatantly copied you're probably safe under fair use.