Can I use a rubber stamp image on my website?
I own a rubber stamp company. pointystick’s answer is correct. Each company will have a different policy on this and you really should check with the company. For example, my company’s policy is here. These are usually called “angel policies” if that helps you search for them. It’s unclear from your question whether you want to put a piece of artwork that happens to include the image on your site, or if you just want to use the image by itself as an illustration or logo. I think some companies would treat each of those situations differently. The safest thing to do is to ask the company. I know there are a few people who have asked me, and I have given them permission beyond what is in my angel policy, just because they asked and were cool about it. (And sometimes they’ve wanted to use stamps that I got from public domain images anyway, in which case I tell them they are free to do whatever the heck they want, since the image is pub
Licensed/trademarked images like Mickey Mouse are a problem, generally. You can’t ever use them on anything that might be considered even remotely commercial. IIRC, some companies with licensed images have different policies for those stamps than for the rest of the stamps in their line. Typically you can use those stamps to stamp on, say, a Christmas card you send to your friends, but not on one you plan to sell at a craft fair. As far as a website is concerned, I think it really does matter what type of use it is, and how strict the company is. Even if they say “no mechanical reproduction” many companies aren’t necessarily going to object to you using a picture of your artwork including that stamp on your website as a “look what I did this weekend” blog entry, even though that is technically mechanical reproduction. But if they are like Disney, they might. On a peripheral note, I had someone ask me just last week to make him a custom sheet of stamps using a bunch of another company’s
It depends on who made the stamp and what that company’s rights are. Some rubber stamp companies are “Angel” companies and allow you to use the images on commerical works (but sometimes they specify hand stamped uses only – so you couldn’t, say, use a photocopier to make 1,000 greeting cards with the image). Some companies, like junesix mentions, make stamps with very recognizable copyrighted images like Mickey or Snoopy and using those is a no-no. Is the manufacturer of the stamp listed on the wooden mount? It is often worth contacting them and asking for permission. In addition, many smaller stamp companies’ images are basically cleaned up versions of clip art so you perhaps can find the image elsewhere.
