[ SECRET POST #2651 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2651 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 051 secrets from Secret Submission Post #379.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I was just thinking about this and I am still forever confused about how fanartists get away with selling their art. I just found a whole website/store dedicated to selling all sorts of shit (phone cases, totes, shirts, mugs, etc) with various fanart on it and I just don't understand it. Pretty sure it's illegal, and I don't get how people are okay with it.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I don't get it either, how people are able to get away with selling their fanart products on sites like Redbubble, Society6 and Etsy.

[blueonblue]

It is illegal, but usually it's not worth it for companies to send a C&D, although I think Cassie Claire did try selling merchandise for her LOTR Very Secret Diaries and had some legal issues witht that.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, well Cassie Claire is a plagiarist asshole, so, can't say I'm surprised about that.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, apart from companies that are extremely litigious on principle, they generally won't bother coming after small-scale fan artists unless they think the fan version is costing them sales on official merchandise. People were making and selling Jayne hats from Firefly for ages, but I don't think anyone started running into trouble until Fox(? I think? Whoever owns the rights now, anyway) licensed someone to sell an official version of the hat.

[(Anonymous)]

I have an online store where I sell things with my fanart (chibi style characters) on it. I hadn't planned to, but my art became popular and people wanted to wear it, so I figured I'd give it a try. What I find is that if my characters can be easily IDed as copyrighted characters, the art will be rejected and I can't sell it, but if they aren't immediately identified, they get a pass.

[(Anonymous)]

And you have no issue with it being illegal? I mean you're selling based on a loophole, just because they're not immediately IDd as copyrighted doesn't mean they're not still copyrighted characters.

[(Anonymous)]

not really-- I'm not taking money from the creators' pockets as they don't sell merchandise. If they sent me a C&D I would stop.

[(Anonymous)]

Makes sense.

I'd like to clarify that I wasn't trying to bash you, just honestly wondering what your thoughts on the process and topic where. Thanks for answering.

[ninety6tears]

If by "people" you mean the people who own the rights to that thing, a lot of the times it's just a matter of fanart staying under the radar, and occasionally people do get told to stop producing products. But if by "people" you mean like us, I don't think there's much reason to kick up a fuss about a chibi Castiel cell phone charm technically being a copyright infringement.

[(Anonymous)]

I just don't get how the artists can sell that and be okay with it. I would feel guilty for making money on someone elses stuff and also be way too paranoid about it being illegal. But then I feel guilty for just about everything I do and have an overly large paranoia of doing things "wrong". So.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah it seems like your moral compass is in overdrive. It's a grey area; the fanartists aren't hurting anyone-- not even anyone's bank acct other than the people who buy their products-- so if it doesn't bother the ones who created the characters, who cares?

[(Anonymous)]

Most of the time, it's because there's no comparable official item. One of my favorite series has almost no official merchandise, so if I want anything for it, I have to buy fanart. And I'm completely okay with that. I'd happily give the company my money if they made official goods, but since they don't, I have no compunction about giving it to fanartists who will give me what I want.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree, I don't know how artists can be okay with breaking the law. Not the making money, because fanart prices are rarely that high. But I'd never sell my own fanart, except perhaps for charity. I once did for charity, and never again, I even bad even doing that. On the other hand, I used to sell my original art all the time, no problem.

But then again, I'd buy fanart. I have bought fanart in the past. I might again. Especially for charity.

I don't know how my brain works sometimes.

[(Anonymous)]

I think the trick is plausible deniability. Like the art in the secret: I think when it was in a shop as a tshirt or whatever and was titled just 'the girl who waited', and nowhere in the description did it say "Doctor Who" or "Amy Pond", like someone selling fanworks of Castiel would probably title it "Trenchcoat angel" or whatever.

As for the illegality, I'm ok with buying such things if there is no official merchandise, or very limited official merchandise. (Like for Doctor Who--most of the stuff tends to be just the Tardis or photographs rather than artwork, so if I want like cute cartoon character versions I can't buy official; Whereas for WoW the official store has a good variety of stuff [or periodically does] so I only get from there)