Legalities Of Copyrighted Work
Sunday August 5, 2007
Here's a great thread in the forum about the question that gets asked every so often: Can you take something, like for instance greeting cards that have a copyrighted image and reuse it to create a new craft? Actually the answer is no. You must have permission from the owner to do this and if you use something like sports logos or even worse, Disney items, you can get into trouble quite quickly. These companies are very active in pursuing people who use their images without written permission. And if you want to get permission from a company like this to use their work, be prepared to pay. The licensing on famous copyrighted work can cost a fortune.
Comments
Interesting article on the legalities of selling certain items. It would be nice to hear about what is ok to sell at sales and what would probably be against the law.
What about people selling paper goods such as vintage magazine advertisements? ( From Life, etc). Where is the line drawn?
Thanks for this info. I didn’t realize that you had to get permission and that it cost.
So you are saying the fabric with say Tinkerbell on it , I can not use that fabric and make something to sell? I do know the colleges will make you buy a license to sell their fabric and you can only buy the fabric from them. I found that out the hard way. So with Walmart selling college fabric I do not understand how I can use that and make something to sell. Thanks.
I know that you can’t sell stuff that is trademarked like NFL, Major League Baseball, Disney without being licensed to do so.
But can anyone tell me the specifics about old magazine advertisements? If you have a 1938 Life magazine and have a market for the ads contained therein, can’t you sell them at shows? Matted? Framed?
I make christmas crafts such as dolls made using a pattern which I purchased and some that are found as free patterns in mag. This will be my first year selling at holiday craft shows (local). What about this? The finished product is always a little different then the one before it and the one before it, etc… Is this a copyright issue?
My photographs constanly appear on forums.Sometimes changed and with my logo cut out. I was even asked if I’ll be ok if they make greeting cards.using my photo. I think public schools should give proper education on copyright issues!