Matt linked to an interesting article about the ethics of posting “found” material on the Internet. I’ve been puzzling over a somewhat-related issue lately myself. Does anyone know anything about public artwork and whether it can be reproduced online? There are a number of murals in Newtown (where I live) that have caught my attention. Most seem to have been done by random graffiti artists, but a few seem to be attached (literally and metaphorically) to businesses. My first impulse was to post some pictures of these at my site, which has turned into a full-blown “Why don’t I start up a Mirror Project-type site for everyone to post these?” idea. I’m worried that there might be copyright issues involved, though. But that can’t be the case when the artwork’s already been put out there in the public domain, can it? What if I take a picture of myself and the mural just happens to be in the background? Is that acceptable? As long as I’m not making money off it, I would assume that such a website could only be seen as promotional, encouraging people to visit the murals shown and to be on the lookout for public art in their own hometowns. Or is this just a silly idea? All I know is, if you saw the big map of Africa on the side of Newtown’s North African Eatery, you’d see what I mean. Someone worked hard on that. This stuff deserves to be noticed.