Questions about an online portfolio and using public domain images.

Okay so i have an online portfolio, with renders i made in blender. Most of my renders are interior archivis. So I often have a painting on the walls. I want to use an old image of a rally car to place on the painting in my render, as it compliments the rest of the scene. The problem is i cant find the origional copyright owner, if there is one. If someone complain i would take it down, no questions asked. When i make renders i make scenes that would interest me. I dont like renders with meaningless graphics in it. Some times i see people create renders of race cars, do they have to ask permission from mitsubishi? Or what if the car created has race sponcers on it? Does the person have to ask all the those companies?

If i use a public domain image in a scene, do i have to mention it in a under the scene? Im not to good at blender yet, as im still in learning stage. So i cant make all the assets yet. Sometimes these copyright issues get in the way of what little creativity i have. I dont want to be sued ether. So can you guys give me some advice?

Also any tips on having a portfolio? A lot of mine, are dervitives of tutorials? What are rules about what you can create and display on a website? For example, i made a poke`ball from pokemon. Can i legally do that?

Sorry for the questions, i dont understand copyright laws well :frowning:

I do not know but I think you do not need to mention public domain. It now belongs to the public?

If photography/image is not the main depiction/object or focal/center point of your image and it just complements the scene (as a prop) you can use it freely (for insurance remove any logos or trademarks as it tends to be more delicate subject). Sometimes defining your relevant sources is a must (as in diploma or a book, movie…) though you can do without it if source cannot be found or defined (anonymous) and you’ve done all in your power to prevent any harm.

Edit:
For displaying as a self promo or Fan art or to give back to Public domain (GPL)… you are OK with this.
For commercial display you ‘usually’ must have a contract (right of use; be it person, logo, form, art, design, plan, building, space, place… differs from country to country)

Thank you for the responses. Yeah if I ever use an image of a race car or something it always to complement the scene.

Be aware GPL is not public domain. It is open source. GPL has still a copyright holder. The GPL allows to use the distributed work under the given conditions.

If you can use work of others to create a new work depends on the laws. These laws differ from country to country. Even inside a single country it might be interpreted differently (e.g. the question is it derived work or a copy?).

As far as I know public domain (must explicitly declared as public domain) is available … to the public. So you can use it in your work. Quite a few licence allows the same thing, but might add conditions (naming the copyright holders).

Finally I’m no lawyer. This is just some shady knowledge ;).