Are fan art commissions legal? — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists

Outpatient Counseling

Are fan art commissions legal?

This page's ID: 21534

Edit Post

Who can edit a post?	The poster and administrators may edit a post. The poster can only edit it for a short while after the initial post.

Your User Name:
Your Password:
Login Options:	Remember Me On This Computer

Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	Wolfen: I can't see a problem with it myself - the fan art would be original work (even if based on copyrighted characters) my guess is that even though it is a legal grey area it has never beend tested in court. I did have a quick look around and found this: [quote]Fan-art of copyrighted characters has no legal protection. If you draw Simba or Nala or Kovu, you are creating a derivative work-- something that U.S. law explicitly defines as being owned by the creator of the original work. Without Disney's permission, all fan-art and fan-fiction using their characters is in fact illegal. Now, don't panic-- most entertainment companies (like Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks, etc.) tend to overlook these kinds of copyright violations. (That's how lionking.org has continued to exist all these years.) They realize that fan creativity is worth more to them in having good relations with their fans than they would gain by aggressively pursuing each and every violation, because usually nobody makes any money off fan-based creations. But that doesn't mean that it's not illegal. The Lion King fan-art and fan-fiction community exists solely because Disney allows it to.[/quote] http://fanart.lionking.org/Copyright.shtml which links to: [quote]6) "If I make up my own stories, but base them on another work, my new work belongs to me." False. U.S. Copyright law is quite explicit that the making of what are called "derivative works" -- works based or derived from another copyrighted work -- is the exclusive province of the owner of the original work. This is true even though the making of these new works is a highly creative process. If you write a story using settings or characters from somebody else's work, you need that author's permission. Yes, that means almost all "fan fiction" is arguably a copyright violation. If you want to write a story about Jim Kirk and Mr. Spock, you need Paramount's permission, plain and simple. Now, as it turns out, many, but not all holders of popular copyrights turn a blind eye to "fan fiction" or even subtly encourage it because it helps them. Make no mistake, however, that it is entirely up to them whether to do that. There is a major exception -- criticism and parody. The fair use provision says that if you want to make fun of something like Star Trek, you don't need their permission to include Mr. Spock. This is not a loophole; you can't just take a non-parody and claim it is one on a technicality. The way "fair use" works is you get sued for copyright infringement, and you admit you did copy, but that your copying was a fair use. A subjective judgment on, among other things, your goals, is then made. However, it's also worth noting that a court has never ruled on this issue, because fan fiction cases always get settled quickly when the defendant is a fan of limited means sued by a powerful publishing company. Some argue that completely non-commercial fan fiction might be declared a fair use if courts get to decide. You can read more[/quote] http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html and there is more on fan fiction copyright here: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html Whihc pretty much mirrors what I thought the situation might be. In the end its your call on that one. ___________________ Emps [url=http://www.the-emperor.org]The Emperor dot org[/url] \| [url=http://www.justice4pat.com]Justice for Pat Richard[/url] \| FAQs: [url=http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/53/]Emperor[/url] \| [url=http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/40/]Site Reviews[/url] \| [url=http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/394/]Reception Room[/url] Loading...
Options:	Enable Slimies Enable Linkwords

« Backwards — Onwards »

Show Forum Drop Down Menu