Copyright issue is getting overblown

"It is standard operating procedure for students of art to learn by example by sketching masterpieces in an art museum.

Julia Illana is a second grader who was visiting the North Carolina Museum of Art with her parents and was sketching paintings in her notebook. Her sketches got the promising artist into trouble with museum security. A museum guard told Julia's parents that sketching was prohibited because the great masterpieces are copyright protected, a concept that young Julia did not understand until her mother explained the term.

Actually, the museum guard was mistaken. There was no copyright issue, and the museum apologized and is telling artists to sketch away as long as they do not interrupt the flow of traffic in the always crowded gallery." Read more.