Hello /biz/,
so I'm planning on creating a fashion product that uses images of copyright work. Without revealing too much, I'll use DBZ as an example.
How are businesses legally allowed to sell Dragon Ball Z merchandise without receiving a licenses or approval to do so from it's content creators? Would incorporating the cartoon's images on a t-shirt constitute fair use?
Anyone with experience regarding copyright law or a similar scenario?
Bump
Anyone? :(
>>1111512
I've been curious about this too. I know sports teams are a big no but I see shit like bands and cartoons on shirts for sale online a lot.
>>1111578
I'm starting to think that it constitutes fair use because its sufficiently transformative from it's original medium.
>>1111512
Nobody wants your shitty DBZ shirts.
>>1112024
Beats another bitcoin though.
OP is probably safer running one of those sites that accepts graphics for custom shirts. Then they have plausible deniability because they're selling a service more than a specific product.
>>1112485
If you want this to be legal, you have to get a license from the copyright holder. You can still do it without permission but you won't have a leg to stand on if you get hauled into court. Unless you're Chinese, because the US is China's bitch and doesn't call them on anything.
>>1112696
Remember, this is a country where the technical fine for copying a rented videotape is $250,000. The IP police will rape you to death if you aren't shielded by big money or anti-extradition laws.
Here you go, dumbass.
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/profile/elderfingolfin/lists/best-public-domain-characters/18883/
>>1111512
>In general
A t-shirt like your pic will get you in legal hot water very quickly if you try to sell it. Don't try it.
>Copyright
Copyright protects specific expressions like drawings, lengthy passages of text, movies, etc. There are times you can use a copyrighted work anyway and those are technically covered by Fair Use. In order to invoke Fair Use you have to argue before a court why your use is fair using four categories including:
1. The purpose and character of the copyrighted work, whether it was used for profit or nonprofit use, and whether the use is transformative (hint: Your t-shirt is not transformative)
2. The nature of the copyrighted work. Imaginative (as opposed to factual) and unpublished works both receive special levels of protection. (hint: DBZ is imaginative)
3. Amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work used. Using a smaller portion of a copyrighted work is more likely to be protected by Fair Use. (hint: Your shirt uses an entire image)
4. Effect of the use upon the copyrighted work. Basically, is this likely to negatively affect the sales of the work. Given the likelihood and possibility that the copyright owner would make a t-shirt from that same given it would be very hard to argue that your t-shirt doesn't violate this too.
tl;dr: Your shirt infringes copyrights like it's going out of style
>Trademark
Trademark exists in order to prevent confusion in the consumer. It protects logos, characters and logos beyond individual images, and similar things. Essentially, this boils down to "How likely is your average consumer to assume that this product came from the company typically associated with whatever the trademark is?" In your case, Goku is trademarked and even if you draw an image of him yourself when people see the shirt they still see Goku, and that's the problem.
tl;dr: You are ripping their trademark too.
>>1112719
Do the laws apply all over the world? What if op sold them from a website that was hosted in Libya? Aren't these laws only applicable in countries who actually enforce them?
Maybe I'm just looking for a loop hole where there isn't one.
>>1112734
No it differs from country to country. In Europe for example you don't have software patents, like they do in the USA. That's why so much copied shit comes from China, because they don't give a fuck.
>>1112734
Obviously if you live in darkest butt-fuck-istan then those laws don't apply to you and you should just do whatever. If you live in a developed part of the world where English is the primary language though those laws (or something extremely similar to them) applies to you in a very real sense.
