Printing Superman logo... copyright violation?

[Ripcord]

A customer wants me to print the Superman logo along with some copy for shirts, not for sale but for a high school club. Since they are only for a club and not for retail, and also obviously not representing official Superman merchandise, I initially thought it should be all right but I'm always cautious about this type of thing.

But if I google "Superman T-shirt" I can find hundreds of images and websites offering T-shirts with this logo on them. If it's a copyright violation, how can so many retailers be offering it?

[blue moon]

A customer wants me to print the Superman logo along with some copy for shirts, not for sale but for a high school club. Since they are only for a club and not for retail, and also obviously not representing official Superman merchandise, I initially thought it should be all right but I'm always cautious about this type of thing.

But if I google "Superman T-shirt" I can find hundreds of images and websites offering T-shirts with this logo on them. If it's a copyright violation, how can so many retailers be offering it?

 the first half a dozen sites I checked were all selling licensed merchandise. I can't see how this would be OK. It is clearly copyrighted.
See fi you can sell them on doing a parody of some sort and you should be free and clear!


pierre

[Sbrem]

It's copyrighted of course. I wouldn't be surprised that they may offer to let people use it in this fashion though, a waiver of some kind. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't...


Steve

[blue moon]

It's copyrighted of course. I wouldn't be surprised that they may offer to let people use it in this fashion though, a waiver of some kind. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't...


Steve

legally the copyright holder is REQUIRED BY LAW to defend their exclusivity. If they are not enforcing the licensing, they can be found to have abandoned the copyright and lose all the rights. That is the reason some companies go after the tiny operators. Not because they care about the profits, but because they can lose the copyright rights if they do not enforce it.

pierre

[Screened Gear]

It's copyrighted of course. I wouldn't be surprised that they may offer to let people use it in this fashion though, a waiver of some kind. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't...


Steve

legally the copyright holder is REQUIRED BY LAW to defend their exclusivity. If they are not enforcing the licensing, they can be found to have abandoned the copyright and lose all the rights. That is the reason some companies go after the tiny operators. Not because they care about the profits, but because they can lose the copyright rights if they do not enforce it.

pierre

Where did you read that? I am sure the superman logo is protected by more than just simple copyright. It has to be a registered trademark or something like that. I

[blue moon]

It's copyrighted of course. I wouldn't be surprised that they may offer to let people use it in this fashion though, a waiver of some kind. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't...


Steve

legally the copyright holder is REQUIRED BY LAW to defend their exclusivity. If they are not enforcing the licensing, they can be found to have abandoned the copyright and lose all the rights. That is the reason some companies go after the tiny operators. Not because they care about the profits, but because they can lose the copyright rights if they do not enforce it.

pierre

Where did you read that? I am sure the superman logo is protected by more than just simple copyright. It has to be a registered trademark or something like that. I

sorry, I might have mixed up the trademark and copyright. . . But I have seen this over time and in one case a forum had to change the name to exclude BMW from the title. Their lawyers explained why they were required to enforce those laws and BMW NA even offered their support for/to the website, so they were very cool about it and the site actually benefited from their involvement, but the name had to be changed.

pierre

[Dottonedan]

It's copyrighted of course. I wouldn't be surprised that they may offer to let people use it in this fashion though, a waiver of some kind. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if they didn't...


Steve

legally the copyright holder is REQUIRED BY LAW to defend their exclusivity. If they are not enforcing the licensing, they can be found to have abandoned the copyright and lose all the rights. That is the reason some companies go after the tiny operators. Not because they care about the profits, but because they can lose the copyright rights if they do not enforce it.

pierre

True dat.  Use it or lose it.

[Shawn (EIP)]

There are t-shirt mini stores (not sure of the right term here) located in malls through out the US that are set up with a heat press and vinyl cutter that will apply any trade marked logo you want and I sure as hell doubt it's legal but they are getting away with it.

[Hegemone]

It's all fun and games until someone makes money off your original design and that person isn't you. I guess one must draw their own lines in the sand. I wish it didn't bother me because theres lots of money to be made if your willing to risk your integrity and possibly have your livelihood seized and sold at auction. The discussion on the 2012 Olympic stuff has been very interesting.

[Screened Gear]

I have seen people lose tons of money because of copyright. I wouldn't try to build a business breaking it.

A friends sister was selling "got Soy Milk" shirts and "Milk" wanted all the records of shirts sold and was really interested in how much she made off of them. After they saw she didn't make hundreds of thousands they backed off and just told her to stop.

I had a client that has one of those "We buy Gold" stores and he used some art of a guy, he found off the internet on his signs (I had nothing to do with it). The guy was from another gold store in the area and they sued him. Last I heard he was going to lose and it would be over $250,000.

Its not worth it.

[Ripcord]

Yep, you guys are right. I called the customer and she agreed that a parody alteration was a better idea.

[Sbrem]

When I said copyrighted, I meant that it was protected...

Steve