If someone is getting paid to create merchandise that infringes on others legal copyright and Trademark it is punishable up to $5000 per instance for copyright and up to the trademark owners to sue you civilly for what ever amount of damages they see fit. Personally I know multiple makers who have been sent seis and disist or sued without warning. For me no amount of money is worth violating a copyright or trademark. Many major corporations make it very easy to report copyright infringement and trademark infringement on their websites.
Itās an easy case for them to win so itās profitable for them.
However, that isnāt to say that Disney is going to sue you if you make your kids frozen themed plates in the ceramics room, or an ironman suit in the Electronics lab. I think the original intent for that law was to prevent fakes on the market. But coupled with the suehappy attitudes of the US in general and now itās expanded.
I know this line exists but I donāt know all the details. My expertise is passive components.
I would love to see a civil discussion of this line and how it affects various makers.
Including writers. Ya know the only writing workshop we have hosted is when someone came in about grant writing. We should do a poetry class.
SQUIRREL!
ANYWAY - please discuss the legalities of copyright as it pertains to makers. Iām interested, but not enough to take a class.
Iāve taken a couple of classes from a couple of different attorneys. Iāve posted a couple of articles from legal experts above. You are correct personal use is fine, the problems come into play when you get paid to make something for someone else.
Hereās some instances I have personal knowledge of.
University of Texas has a semester internship for their law students where all they do is search for copyright infringement on Longhorn merchandise.
When I worked at Joannās fabrics we received multiple bolts of what appeared to be Burberry Plaid. I called my district manager because just a few months prior a friend had gotten dinged for using their plaid in a graphic design for another companies advertising. I was told donāt worry about it. Less than 6 weeks later we got a letter from corporate to pull it off the floor and store it until they had final instructions on how to dispose of it. We had to document total yardage on hand for every SKU and destroy it with box cutters with photographic evidence.
The image and likeness of famous people. I know 2 different artist who have gotten into trouble with Betsy Page Estate and Taylor Swift for using their likeness without permission in commercial art. So itās not limited just use of iconic brands but iconic people. Some people are fine others not so much. Do your research and reach out to them if youāre unsure.
Edit
If you have concerns for the Legos in the flyer thatās in development for the Raise the Roof campaign the images came from Canva Pro for Nonprofits and I have emailed Lego and plan on calling them as well today to make sure what we are doing does not violate their fair use policy. Fair Play - Notices & Policies - Legal - LEGO.com US
I talked one of our members into a writing class once alreadyā¦ so we have had one writing class that I know of.
Does anyone want to teach a writing class or a poetry class? If I donāt get any takers, there is a gal that runs the Community writing workshop I go to at the library (next meeting Thursday, Aug 3. ) who happens to be a poet and I will try to recruit her.
(When checking the times for the Community writing workshop, I also noticed that there is a Writing Circle workshop with 6 events beginning July 6th)
Both workshops are on fiction writing and held at the Advanced Learning Library.
Itās super important to remember copyright law before starting a project. Malissa is always saying my art is awesome and valuable, but itās almost never for sale/ proffit or advertising so I can largely say or use whatever I want. My friends love it, but I love themš! Should I give my art away? Yes, my friends treat me great and they deserve the best. Should Jay Christensen make and give away his art and culinary masterpieces? I certainly love and enjoy them.
I think the purest form of art isnāt motivated by money, which I think stifles my creative process.
My understanding has been that if you are not making it to be sold - different that āfor profitā - you are usually ok. Iām not sure of the nuances so Iāve always tried to steer clear of it completely. With some of the decisions wrt music lately, I do wonder how many truly original ideas still exist. I didnāt believe that t-mobile owned the rights to the magenta color they use until I looked it up.
Selling, with or without a profit only has bearing on the amount of damages awarded and many examples exist of copyright infringement being enforceable when something was 'given away '. See, for example, All the thousands of people pursued for infringement on peer to peer file sharing networks. Or background music in non-monitized YouTube videos. Or grandmothers letting a child use their internet connection and running limewire or Napster or similar.