I had never used Google Images before, so I just went over there and searched for "cartoon boy" and here's the results http://images.google.com/images?gbv=1&h ... ision&cd=1

Each one of those images is a link, and it looks to me like if you followed the links, you could find the original artist. There are so many different kinds of images, and since I've only used Google Images this once, I couldn't possibly instruct you on how to find the original artist for every type of image found there.

All I can say is that there are such things as patents, copyrights and trademarks, which are legal definitions regarding the ownership of original documents, whether written, image, music, or whatever. The simplest explanation is this: The original artist, or author, or musician (or otherwise the original creator of any work) owns his or her work, and can dictate how it may and may not be used by others. Technically, legal action can be brought against someone who uses someone else's work without permission (whether you have given them credit or not). At the following website, you should be able to find info on legal definitions: World Intellectual Property Organization

But leaving alone the legal concepts, which are complicated and confusing, it's only considered common courtesy, in the artist community, to give credit where credit is due. And if you use someone else's art, either directly, or even for inspiration, the general expectation is that you give that artist credit. This is a very simple and easy thing to do.

For example, instead of

traced from a ready made pencil image

you might say

traced from a pencil image by 'name of artist'

And you might even want to include a link to the original image, giving everyone who views your image, access to the original artist's work. For another example, notice how microUgly gives credit to King-Cheetah and renecordova, for images he used in his Quick Guide to Inkscape (bottom of page http://www.microugly.com/inkscape-quickguide/)

Ideally, you should ask for permission to use someone else's work. But realistically, it might be hard to locate and contact them. In my opinion, if you can't contact someone, you shouldn't use their work -- but that's my own opinion, based on my understanding of the various laws. Others have different interpretations. And to confuse things further, different countries' laws are different. This is why the internet presents such a gray area regarding ownership.

Even though there may be legal consequences for using another person's work (much less claiming it as your own) most amateur artists will not pursue legal action if you have given them credit for their work, especially if you have provided a link which gives viewers access to the body of their works. That is unless you have made money by using their work -- in that case, you'd probably be in big trouble, even if you did give them credit.

When I 1st joined this forum (InkscapeForum.com) I inquired about copyrights, permissions, and how this forum approaches these legal concepts. Here's a link to that discussion viewtopic.php" onclick="readonly();return false;"smilies" src="images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" />