Interesting question OP. Intrigued, I did a smidge of research about "fair use" and how it might apply to J Skis graphics. Here's what I found:
Fair use is a legal exception to the exclusive rights of the owner of a copyrighted work. Basically, it's an attempt to find a balance between the rights of the copyright owners and the interests of the public. Fair use allows for "limited and reasonable" uses, as long as the use doesn't infringe on the owner's rights.
Fair use is used mostly for things like news reporting, criticism, comment, teaching, research, parody etc. A classic example would be a product review: You're writing a review about a ski boot, so you snag a (copyrighted) photo from the ski boot company's website, and use it in your review. If you're providing a comment or critique, you're allowed this "fair use" for the benefit of the public.
Here are the 4 factors courts are supposed to consider in determining whether something is fair use or not:
(1) The purpose and character of the use, including whether you’ve made a new transformative work, and whether your use is commercial.
(2) The nature of the original work, such as whether it is more factual than fictional.
(3) How much of the original work was used.
(4) Whether the new use affects the potential market for the original work.
J would have a harder case to make for fair use because he's putting the images on a commercial product, but since his graphics are all collages, and he's making limited-edition runs, he has some other "fair use" avenues to follow. Collages that "transform" their contents into something that doesn't resemble the original material can be considered fair use.
One one site I found this quote, some of which sounds applicable to J's designs:
"collages that have more of the following characteristics are more likely to qualify as fair use:
*The collage incorporates many different materials from many different sources.
*The materials are juxtaposed or arranged in ways that create new visual and conceptual effects, the more different from the effect of the original materials, the better.
*The collage does not feature a copyrighted work as the central focus or dominant image. Only portions of copyrighted materials are used, rather than the entire image.
*The collage is a one-of-a-kind piece of fine art, or published in a limited edition of fine art prints"
So basically, it
could be legal, but anyone holding a copyright to one of the images that shows up on a J Ski could still send J a cease and desist letter demanding that he stop his usage of that image or face legal action. Then either the courts get to figure out whether it is, in fact, fair use, or--more likely--J just doesn't drop the ski with said graphic. After all he's only making what, 100 pairs of them?
Companies getting into trouble over their collage graphics has happened numerous times over the years in the ski industry. I'm sure some people on NS could tell some stories about all the skis with graphics that never got released.
my use of this image here would be considered fair use:
whether it is fair use on the J Skis site would be more debatable
Sources:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/copyright-fair-use-and-how-it-works-for-online-images/
https://graphicartistsguild.org/tools_resources/fair-use-or-infringement
