Fan art

[guarddog14]

Hi every one , i know people will have differnt views on this but fan art could you end up in trouble with it?
for example i make this bane form the batman films , its my creation but would it be copyright because im selling a picture of a character or is it how the wording is listed?[ATTACH=CONFIG]2661[/ATTACH]

[galerion]

My understanding is that fan art is a breach of copyright but that copyright owners turn a blind eye to it with regards to images on the net. Producing products with fan art could be risky but then again i've seen loads of products with fan art on and not just on ebay and esty. Where you are on safer ground would be if you made art work from the idea of a character as ideas can't be copyrighted. So for example if you made a picture of Alice from Alice in wonderland as long as the picture is orginal based on the idea of Alice from the story and not just a redrawn version of Disney art you would be ok.

[bycandlelight27]

Hi, what if the fan art is of the actor rather than the characters? Like doing Christopher Reeves but not as superman? Is this effected if you use your own photography?

[ArtyGamer]

If you use your own photography and it features a person in it, then you need a model release otherwise you're using someone's likeness without their permission. Doesn't matter if it's your photo or not; it's the subject matter that's copyrighted rather than the originator. Like if I were to take a photo of one of my DVD covers, I couldn't then sell it without any legal issues just because I took the photo myself.

I'm not sure whether it extends to caricatures though, so they may be exempt. No idea.

[bycandlelight27]

So, photos from fan events that you have personally taken can't be used. Even in the realms of fan art being created from it. How would you get a model release?

[logobear]

You don't technically need a model release, it is just considered good practice in case the subject later persues you for using their image in a deflamatory way.

[galerion]

My reply to the orginal poster may now be slightly wrong or lacking with the introduction of new legislation to allow for parody see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121 and http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029. Reading the link to the legislation it says it amends the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 but i'm no lawyer so i'm unsure as to whether this effects printed works or not.

[pisquee]

Was going to post this yesterday, as above really I guess, but may explain things differently:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/02 ... nto_force/

[GoonerGary]

If you have made an artwork from an original photograph which looks identical to the original photograph, then that would be a breach of copyright. If you are then selling artwork of a character, you will find that the character is trademarked. You wouldn't be able to use trademarked/ copyrighted names in your product title as this would imply an association with the original.

There is some info here, but bear in mind that it is US copyright law being referred to:

http://jomosthompson.wordpress.com/2010 ... copyright/

[ArtyGamer]

The important thing to remember when using anything that has previously existed is that you still need to get the product out there. What I mean by that is... I had dozens of 'parody' works which sold for years without any problems whatsoever, because I knew where I stood when it came to the law... BUT... if you don't mention the name of the original work then it's nigh on impossible for your product to be found. And that's when you enter into a grey area.

Case in point - I was selling artwork (prints and shirts) based on the video game Borderlands. It's one of my favourite games, so I know everything about it inside out.. even the tiniest little things. This makes it perfect to work with because if you know the humour behind it, know all the little details, then you can create your OWN works which don't infringe on any copyright and are a mere homage to the series. Right? Wrong. I was approached by Take Two Interactive's lawyers in New Jersey with a Federal Cease & Desist Order and told in no uncertain terms that I'd be prosecuted to the tune of $10,000 per infringing item if I attempted to sell them again. This was after they'd already pulled all of the offending products from eBay and Etsy. Knowing where I stood with it, I wrote back to them immediately and explained that there is NO way that anything I produced could possibly infringe on any of their trademarks or intellectual properties because they were created specifically by me from only using knowledge of the game and not using any images or likenesses from it.

They agreed. They actually agreed. They said very clearly that it wasn't actually the images themselves that Take Two had a problem with, but the use of the term "Borderlands" in the product titles so they would accept defeat on that particular stance and allow me to relist the products (they even contacted eBay and Etsy themselves to lift the ban, which I thought was very good of them) as long as I didn't use any registered marks within the titles or descriptions. Well... that made it tough. If any Borderlands fans had been searching through eBay and Etsy and come across my designs, they'd immediately know that it was a Borderlands-related product and would (hopefully!) get the humour that I was going with... but they'd have to find it first. Without the ability to include "Borderlands", "Pandora", "Dr Ned", "Mad Moxxi", "Fyrestone" or ANY of the named areas/people/products within the Borderlands universe... there was no way for people to actually find the products.

So that's what ended up happening. I kept the listings alive, and have barely sold any since because nobody knows that they're there. So it doesn't matter if you parody something, because you can't legally use the name of the thing you're parodying (if it's trademarked) without ending up in a legal battle. I've had the same thing happed with two other video game developers and each time there's been absolutely nothing from their universe included in the design other than a mental link to it, but the name itself in the title of the product (or keywords in the listing as far as Etsy is concerned) is enough.

It makes it practically impossible to be commercially viable. You can legally sell them, but there's no real way to get the products out there unless you mention the source material and you can't even say "Inspired by Borderlands" because that's still enough to get you sued. I even spoke with two separate lawyers to get their advice and they said that my hands are tied. I just have to rely on people finding the products in other ways, even though I'm not in breach of any copyright/trademark with my designs.