<--not a lawyer.

Looks like a rip to me.

It's 15 credits, which is what, like US$13.50? Just buy it, then you have the right to alter it as you please, according to the istockphoto EULA, and without legal troubles.

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WOW...i must be an idiot. i never even thought to do that.

i guess what i don't understand is, there are a lot of lions out there. couldn't i design something and have anyone say that it is inspired by their lion?

okay, what about now? does it still look too similar?

No, it is not ok. There is no magical amount of changing an image that makes it ok. The artist who created the original deserves to be paid for his work. It is not ok for you to steal it no matter how much you tweak around the colors and lines.

alright...i guess i understand that...it just seems that almost everything made could most likely be linked back to something else previously made by someone else.

if i were to have made that from scratch without ever seeing the stock image, it could have still looked somewhat similar. (at which this point i'll never know)...but in that case, would that still be considered infringement, (if I had made a similar looking lion without seeing the other one for inspiration?)

it just seems like there is a lot of gray area on this, never learned about it school, and i am trying to find my way in it...

Two lions are not identical, but you have taken the concept of the original

If you made it from scratch, then it would be coincidence. A pure freak of nature. But you didn't and therefore it's a copy.

Even if you tweak it until it looks completely different, because you started with a copy, it will always be a copy.

so are you telling me when you want to make a rose, that you do it from your head, pure imagination? you don't maybe go google image a picture of a rose to get ideas from? would you say that drawing inspiration, or even tracing for that matter, photographs are any different or "less offensive" then pre-made vector/clip art?

I would take my own picture of a rose, or draw one, and base it on that. Photos posted on google images are not public domain, and you can't just take one and use it as a base for your own work without compensating the person who owns the rights to the image.

Try thinking about it this way. If you designed the original image (or took the photo) and found that someone else had copied it the way you did above without compensating you - or crediting you - in any way, wouldn't you be upset? If so, how is it right the other way around?

wow. that seems like a lot of work. i mean i get it with everyday objects...but if you need to draw a vector image of an obscure item, like a iberian lynx or something, i'm sure you'd be hitting up "le'goog" for some inspiration. or maybe not. maybe there really are people out there who would draw it out.

but for my fellow generation Y designers in America, i think we are little more dependent on outside sources.

no, i would not be offended if someone took my design and redesigned/tweaked it for their own use. i would not be mad if i posted a picture of my dog online and someone decided to trace it for a vector image. not at all. there is a sense of fear having people mess with your work, that either a. you won't get credit for it or b. they are getting paid work for your design.

a - i'm not looking to get any credit, i'm looking for money, so I don't care
b - i'd be erked i wasn't getting money for it, but if i hadn't made money from the original design myself in the first place, the person who took it and changed it obviously must had improved it to be better than my original...

so i guess maybe i'm weird like that. i won't be using copyright images for inspiration any longer, just from a legality sense.

however, i think that material that is NOT copyrighted online is fair game. just sayin'.

Why does everyone hit the goog for inspiration? What about going to a shop and buying a book on the topic? Look at photographs, look at situations, muscle structure, facical expresions etc, tail shape, etc. from actual photographs. Then draw a few different concepts yourself.

Forget about the internet.

I bet your offenceometer would be off the scale if someone took your designed lion and redid it and it looked like it came from your lion. They then go out and get a lion costume made from that design. And start a kids TV show and the Lion becomes a hit TV show where the creator who stole your work is making millions from YOUR design.

How offended would you be then?

There are different types of licences, like Royalty Free and Royalty Managed, Editorial Use Only, Creative Commons etc.

But just because it doesn't say "copyright" on it doesn't mean you can say "yoink".