Worth a read…
May 10th, 2009 by YTWWN
I don’t usually post stuff like this but I thought this was worth a read…
As Taken from howtostartaclothingcompany.com
The truth about copyrights and licensing
I know what you’re thinking…you have an awesome idea for a shirt, but it’s using a well known, copyrighted character.
“Hmm,” you say, “I could probably get away with it, right? I mean, it’s not like [insert major corporation here] own every aspect of the character. Besides, what I’m really doing is a parody and hardly looks like it…yeah, it’ll be ok…right?”
Sound familiar?
I get lots of questions from people who want to get into the shirt business asking me about using licensed imagery, sayings, and characters in their designs. They ask me if it’s “ok” because they deviated from the original works by a certain percentage, or because it’s a parody, or some other excuse they claim will allow them to cash in on their design while not getting into trouble. The fact is: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and even quacks like a duck…it’s copyright infringement. That means that the little “personal flair” you add to the design idea isn’t enough to keep you off the radar of any major company protecting their intellectual property rights. Make any excuse you want, but you know what? You’ll have to prove it in court…and do you have enough money to do that? That’s what I thought…
(34 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5)
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Awesome. Thanks for posting that. Definitely gives some food for thought.
This information could devastate Snorg Tees and the rest of the online novelty t-shirt industry.
word.
the reality is, copyright infringement is rampant in the teeshirt game. Hot Topic and Wal-Mart get sued constantly. however, they got the bread to slug it out… little guys would do better to steer clear.