Would it be legal to ...

I would say that the artwork/photos on Album sleeves would be copyrighted by somebody. If you wanted to do everthing by the book you could attempt to contact the record label/photographer and ask for permission to use their work. They may even be able to help you to sell them.

If you want to chance it I'm sure they'll sell well and I think it's unlikely that you'll get caught.

If you did some homework you could find out how long the copyright is valid for, you might find it's only 50 years in which case you could produce canvases for LP's that are older than that completely legitimately. There are probably different laws in different countries so if you found foreigh LP covers you might be able to use those too.

Good Luck.

Hi and thanks for your reply. The amount of work involved in contacting each record company and or trying to track down the original graphic artist would be a mammoth task, which would basically be for a one off canvas each time.
I was hoping that similar to music, you would be allowed to make a one off copy for your own use, similar to backing up a CD or tape, as long as you didn't make it commercially available.
The legal complexities of copyright, make it a potential minefield, too much for an individual to take on a multi-million pound company.
As I stated in the original posting, this would only be done for producing canvasses for the sleeve owner and not for commercial production.
I have many records in my collection which have superb artwork, a lot of these records I only purchased (second hand mainly) purely for the sleeve. I assume I can produce prints of these for my own use with very little chance of being prosecuted. But offering a similar service to other people via Ebay could possibly leave me open to severe penalties?
Once again, thanks for your reply.
Regards

Its not illegal per-se as its not explicit on an album cover (or at least most I remember) pertinent to copyright. Most albums that I remember stated copyright based on the music not necessarily the entire commercial product.

However... with that said you dont want do it. The potential for litigation is certainly there and I am 100% certain as far as eBay at least goes they'd axe your account if any rights holder complained.

Remember that Vero members are watching auctions all the time for infractions and will shut down an auction in a heart beat.

My take on this and it's just my personal view...I think its wrong.