Note: Creators of original works, be it artistic, literary, or musical, are protected by copyright laws. All of Kelly Wiseman’s works, images, and text, are copyright or trademark protected and may not be used or reproduced without permission from Kelly Wiseman.

This section includes information about copyright law that we hope will be helpful, as well as guidelines for common requests we receive for the use of Kelly’s work.

If you are working on a project that in any way incorporates Kelly’s books (Katie Ladybug), artwork or name, please review the information in this section. Should you have any questions please contact Kelly Wiseman by sending a message via our contact page.

When original works, be it artistic, literary, musical, are first created, the copyright in the work immediately becomes the property of the creator (it is considered “intellectual property”). Federal copyright law gives the copyright owner exclusive rights to reproduce the work, create derivative works (work based on the original work) and to give permission for others to use, copy or modify the work.

Trademarks are another kind of intellectual property. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.

For more information about copyright law you might be interested in visiting The Library of Congress website http://www.copyright.gov There is also a book, published by Nolo Press, “The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect and Use Written Works” by Attorney Stephen Fishman, which might be helpful.

We receive many requests for permission for these types of use of Kelly Wiseman’s work that we are happy to accommodate, as long as the materials created are not being sold or distributed in any way.

Examples of Personal or Educational Use Might Include:

• Design and paint a Mural for a school or library
• Create a Accessories & Crafts based on Katie Ladybug illustrations
• Include a LINK to the Katie Ladybug Website for use in a school project or educational website
• To make a PHOTOCOPY of Kelly Wiseman’s work

All OTHER requests must be submitted for approval via our contact page.

Any use that does not adhere to personal or educational guidelines listed above must be submitted for review.

We generally do not allow for any commercial use that includes sale or distribution such as:

• Video/film recordings
• Audio recordings
• Printed or published materials
• Any internet use (we are very careful about the use and distribution of digital images and tend not to allow for internet use)
• Educational materials for the classroom
• Performances and productions that charge admission or that are performed more than once (One-time-only in-school/classroom performances excluded)
• Storytime programs that charge admission or are being offered on an ongoing basis
• Art workshops that charge admission or are being offered on an ongoing basis

You may be surprised to know that creating Accessories and Crafts based on the artwork from Kelly Wiseman’s book(s) is a common request.

While you may create a quilt based on Kelly Wiseman’s work, you may only do so for your own personal use and may not distribute Accessories and Crafts, or make duplicates of your Accessories and Crafts for sale.

Also, please note that requests must be submitted for approval via our contact page.

In your design, please adhere to the following guidelines:

We prefer that book cover images are used rather than images from inside the book.

Characters must be shown as they appear in the book, additionally characters and images may not be cropped or altered.

Photo and digital copiers are perhaps, one of the most prevalent threats to creatives and copyright protected materials today. But not all photocopying is necessarily an unlawful act.

Copyright laws allow for people to use portions of copyrighted material under “fair use”. This includes photocopying one copy of an article or a small portion of a book for personal non-commercial use.

Children’s picture books fall into a category called “Special Works” which has its own set of guidelines. Photocopying of Special Works is limited to no more than ten percent (10%) of the total text of the book or no more than two published pages including illustrations; anymore than this constitutes infringement.

All photocopied material must contain the copyright information located on the information page of the book.

However, using photocopies of copyrighted material to create games, charts and other material, is not permitted under “fair use”. Using someone else’s work in such projects requires prior consent of the copyright owner, in this case Kelly Wiseman.

We do keep our eye out for copyright infringement and remedy the situation as necessary. Typically, if there is no commercial value to the material using Kelly Wiseman’s images or text, we may grant permission (even retroactively).

If the infringement is of commercial nature, where revenue is being generated by sales or viewing of infringing materials, legal action may be taken to stop such infringement and when appropriate, monetary recovery may be considered.

If you are a school or library or a college student, you are welcome to link directly to the homepage of the Official Eric Carle Web Site at www.eric-carle.com for use on the web site at your school or library.

Please send the URL for your web site to us via our contact page, so that we can have it for our records and possibly feature it within our marketing communications.

We retain the right to have the link removed at our discretion.