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bladesparkIf I hear one more person say "It's perfectly legal to make your own art/stories/costumes/other copy of a copyrighted character, so long as you're not doing it for profit" I am going to SCREAM.
No.
It's not.
Okay?
Not flipping legal.
There are two ways in which it is legal to copy a copyrighted character. 1. It's a case that falls under "fair use" which means you are copying it to discuss, parody, critique, study, etc. 2. You have been given permission by the copyright owner.
Those are the ONLY CASES EVER, okay? If you do not have permission, THEN YOU CAN'T USE IT. There is no law that says "If you're not making money, you can copy copyrighted stuff in any way you please." Okay? NO SUCH LAW.
Some owners have given their fans blanket permission to use their work for non commercial purposes. But just because Mercedes Lackey has said her fans have her permission to make Valdemar fan art doesn't mean that making Harry Potter fan art is okay. It doesn't work like that, so quit telling me it does. (I'm fairly certainly Rowling has also given blanket permission, but I KNOW of some authors who HAVE sued their own fans over making fan art. It has happened, so don't assume it won't, go find out.)
Breaking copyright on art for personal use rather than for profit means three things:
1. You're less likely to get caught at it.
2. The copyright owner may not bother to sue you, since you're not directly harming their income, and
3. If you do get sued, you won't be fined as much money when* you lose as you would have been if you'd been doing it for profit.
These things don't make it legal. They make it possible to get away with it most of the time, but just because most of the time you're not driving past a speed trap, that doesn't make speeding legal!
Sheesh. If you want to take the risk, feel free. Plenty of people do, and they usually don't get in trouble. But for the love of small furry things, quit telling me that it's legal when it's not!
(Pardon my recent spate of ranty posts. I'm under a great deal of personal stress just now, so it's sort of leaking out in the form of a total lack of patience with things like this.)
*I say "when" because the only cases I have ever heard of where the infringer beat a copyright lawsuit are cases involving music, which is an entirely different area of copyright law. If you have drawn a million Lion King characters, and Disney takes you to court, what exactly is your defense going to be? They're obviously characters belonging to Disney, you obviously didn't have permission to use them, so what are you going to say? "But I never made any money doing it" doesn't get you anywhere, legally speaking, so if that's your only argument, you will lose the suit. And "But I changed this one's hair to green, he's my own original character now" also doesn't hold water. Sorry. The "change it 10%" rule is as much of a myth as the "personal use is okay" rule. If somebody looks at it and goes "Looks like Simba" then you're screwed. You have to change something enough that it's no longer recognizable as the original in order to be legal, and once you've done that it's no longer copying, is it? It's just inspiration. Like the Fizzkit.
http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/dark/fizzgig.jpg <--Fizzgig
http://sparkcostumes.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=106&pos=9 <--Fizzkit
You're going to look at the Fizzkit and go "that kind of reminds me of Fizzgig" but you're not going to go "That IS Fizzgig" because Fizzgig didn't have a tail, or ears, and did have a nose, and was rounder, and... etc. Taking inspiration is fine. Copying isn't. End of story. So the next person who tells me it's legal to break copyright for personal use is going to get whapped upside the head with a haddock.
No.
It's not.
Okay?
Not flipping legal.
There are two ways in which it is legal to copy a copyrighted character. 1. It's a case that falls under "fair use" which means you are copying it to discuss, parody, critique, study, etc. 2. You have been given permission by the copyright owner.
Those are the ONLY CASES EVER, okay? If you do not have permission, THEN YOU CAN'T USE IT. There is no law that says "If you're not making money, you can copy copyrighted stuff in any way you please." Okay? NO SUCH LAW.
Some owners have given their fans blanket permission to use their work for non commercial purposes. But just because Mercedes Lackey has said her fans have her permission to make Valdemar fan art doesn't mean that making Harry Potter fan art is okay. It doesn't work like that, so quit telling me it does. (I'm fairly certainly Rowling has also given blanket permission, but I KNOW of some authors who HAVE sued their own fans over making fan art. It has happened, so don't assume it won't, go find out.)
Breaking copyright on art for personal use rather than for profit means three things:
1. You're less likely to get caught at it.
2. The copyright owner may not bother to sue you, since you're not directly harming their income, and
3. If you do get sued, you won't be fined as much money when* you lose as you would have been if you'd been doing it for profit.
These things don't make it legal. They make it possible to get away with it most of the time, but just because most of the time you're not driving past a speed trap, that doesn't make speeding legal!
Sheesh. If you want to take the risk, feel free. Plenty of people do, and they usually don't get in trouble. But for the love of small furry things, quit telling me that it's legal when it's not!
(Pardon my recent spate of ranty posts. I'm under a great deal of personal stress just now, so it's sort of leaking out in the form of a total lack of patience with things like this.)
*I say "when" because the only cases I have ever heard of where the infringer beat a copyright lawsuit are cases involving music, which is an entirely different area of copyright law. If you have drawn a million Lion King characters, and Disney takes you to court, what exactly is your defense going to be? They're obviously characters belonging to Disney, you obviously didn't have permission to use them, so what are you going to say? "But I never made any money doing it" doesn't get you anywhere, legally speaking, so if that's your only argument, you will lose the suit. And "But I changed this one's hair to green, he's my own original character now" also doesn't hold water. Sorry. The "change it 10%" rule is as much of a myth as the "personal use is okay" rule. If somebody looks at it and goes "Looks like Simba" then you're screwed. You have to change something enough that it's no longer recognizable as the original in order to be legal, and once you've done that it's no longer copying, is it? It's just inspiration. Like the Fizzkit.
http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/dark/fizzgig.jpg <--Fizzgig
http://sparkcostumes.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=106&pos=9 <--Fizzkit
You're going to look at the Fizzkit and go "that kind of reminds me of Fizzgig" but you're not going to go "That IS Fizzgig" because Fizzgig didn't have a tail, or ears, and did have a nose, and was rounder, and... etc. Taking inspiration is fine. Copying isn't. End of story. So the next person who tells me it's legal to break copyright for personal use is going to get whapped upside the head with a haddock.
