[ SECRET POST #3267 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3267 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 050 secrets from Secret Submission Post #467.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - random advertisement for porcelain doves ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Holy shit everybody playing internet lawyer here. Two seconds worth of googling show that is IS technically illegal and copyright infringement, not just "trademark infringement" or some shit. Copyright law states that the person who holds the rights to the work/character holds all the rights to distribute derivative works featuring that work/character.

http://graphicleftovers.com/blog/fan-art-vs-copyright-infringement-legal/
http://chrisoatley.com/fan-art/


This should clear up a bit for those who are confused. To sum it up in a TL;DR: It is illegal, all of it, but in the case of fans not making any money they generally leave it alone. However, in the case that OP states, selling art that directly mimics the original, that's something else entirely and could very well be taken to court of they felt like it. And they would win. Hands down.

So, yeah, for everybody acting all high and mighty here, you're not "in the right" with fanart and fanfic, it's mostly that creators just don't want the headache unless you're actively making money.

[(Anonymous)]

I just want to add to this: drawing fanart in your own style rather then the style of the immediate property IS helpful.

The problem with drawing in the style of the show is that you'll then be considered direct competition, and you'll get your ass handed to you in court.

But if something is a very different style it can be considered to be a tribute to something rather then being in direct competition.

It's also worth noting that some fan activity is perfectly legal if it can fall under parody and/or fair use. It's not a guarantee but it's why many comedy cartoons can get away with making fun of big properties they don't own.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh... so here's my view.

There's the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is to encourage artistic creation by protecting the creator's ability to profit off their creative work, which includes being able to veto works based on their work or being paid when other people want to make works based on their work. The language of the law is very strong in order to protect this incentivizing right and cover all corner cases.

What a lawyer is going to say (and correctly) is that there is NO way of doing fanwork that is not going to put you in legal danger. Not even work offered to the public for free. It is technically a breach of copyright law, and it's unknown if the fair use line will fall in your favor. This is not the same as saying that you are in the wrong and if you get taken to court you WILL lose. It means there is valid reason for someone to take you to court and if that happens you will need to come up with a good defense, and even the best defense has a chance of failing. This seems to be what the pages you linked are saying (which is fair enough!).

I also would like to argue that just because something is illegal doesn't mean you are "in the wrong" either. For one, copyright law is notoriously overpowered and skewed in favor of companies. Might doesn't necessarily make right. Second, while it's technically within a copyright holder's purview to sue you and collect damages, they will most likely just go for a cease-and-desist if anything, and fans and fansites usually comply. There is a way to handle these issues without moralizing and going for punishment. You can ask people not to do things you don't like without telling them they are Wrong Wrong Wrong.

Basically, I'm really not a fan of using the legal status of something to shame or moralize at other fans. :/

(To be pedantic, you cannot copyright a character. It's an idea. "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work." However, you're right that works that are based on the original work are still considered derivative, and this includes fanart, fanfiction, even cosplay. Additionally, all artwork of the character is copyrighted, so reproducing it exactly is technically a copy of the original work, although again, probably not a kind of usage the original creator cares about or de-incentivizes them to create when breached.)

[(Anonymous)]

DA. I agree with ALL of this. A big thing I see happening in these arguments often is that legally wrong = morally wrong which is not really a stance I agree with, especially when copyright law is complicated and tends to protect those with the better lawyers more then anything else (for example, if Disney rips off an artist, and very obviously rips them off, the original artist is still more likely to lose out because who is going to have the legal team that Disney does?)

Art has ALWAYS been inspired by other art. Copyright law and the term fanart are fairly new in the history of art, and it just tends to complicate the arguments when we forget that the fanart/fic are also art forms.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

Umm...characters have been copyrighted though like what the hell are you even talking about? It's even been fought in court before.

[(Anonymous)]

Even in the case of fan artists making money they generally leave it alone (see: comics artists) as long as there's no claim that it's official merchandise and no-one gets public with the porn.