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Artist => Copyrights/Trade Marks info/questions => Topic started by: Frog on October 29, 2016, 01:04:07 PM
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Okay, way too much time on my hand this morning at 6:30.
Received a Yelp message asking if I could do a one-off (something I do) for a party tonight.
Tune Squad logo.
I respond back saying no, that is copyrighted.
Oh no, my friend drew it and changed it. Check it out.
All I could see different was no black circle around the "target". I went to explain that really, the only time this comes close to legit is as a parody.
When asked about this, I whipped out this example. Not as a suggestion, but as an illustrative example.
So, here's a real shirt, their version, and my five minute parody (which, of course, she has absolutely no interest in, LOL)
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See, I already thought the "original" was a parody.
I'd have had no clue who this "TuneSquad" was and assumed it would be safe to print.
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(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/84/bd/06/84bd068b35e3858d793ea12d5e264556.png)
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That's not parody? J/K
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It's just one shirt? I'd do it. Who's going to sue you? But let your conscience be your guide.
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assuming the original is copyrighted, the squid version is not a parody, but a joke. Parody has to make fun or mockery of the original for the purpose of making a statement. For example, "yummie Brownies" is not a parody of the cleveland Browns, but a clever joke. Having an image of a brownie and a Browns helmet (or logo) then saying that these brownies suck would qualify for a parody. In this case parody would be saying "out of tune squad" if they were not performing well. . .
Here's a quote from the web:
"A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way." (emphasis is mine).*
pierre
*http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/
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It's just one shirt? I'd do it. Who's going to sue you? But let your conscience be your guide.
Dan, you're skating on thin ice using Jiminy Cricket's catch phrase!
I don't mean to preach, but "just this one", or "only this time" can be the beginning of a very slippery slope with all of life's moral decisions.
And though I may make a personal shirt that I would never do commercially, the decision has never been made on quantity.
btw, the idea of doing something wrong merely because one probably won't get caught or punished is the basis for almost all lawlessness.
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What about something like this?
This isn't "parody" but Jason Lee isn't a nobody either.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/05/10/18/051018c687e601618da0083fd285cebf.jpg)
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assuming the original is copyrighted, the squid version is not a parody, but a joke. Parody has to make fun or mockery of the original for the purpose of making a statement. For example, "yummie Brownies" is not a parody of the cleveland Browns, but a clever joke. Having an image of a brownie and a Browns helmet (or logo) then saying that these brownies suck would qualify for a parody. In this case parody would be saying "out of tune squad" if they were not performing well. . .
Here's a quote from the web:
"A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way." (emphasis is mine).*
pierre
*http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/
Well then, I would have been lucky that the term "squid" was used because in urban slang, it now means "Someone lacking in ability or skill, especially in a sport or activity".
The term started with sport bikers.
Whew, that was close! LOL!
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Frog,
That's all true. But I would still not sweat doing one tee. Morally or legally. It's a tee shirt. Your not running a red light risking others. JMO but you right. Can be a slippery slip and right is right.
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What about something like this?
This isn't "parody" but Jason Lee isn't a nobody either.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/05/10/18/051018c687e601618da0083fd285cebf.jpg)
Is this from when Jason Lee was a skater? Because around that time it seemed like every t-shirt and a ton of boards advertised in thrasher were some sort of "skaterized" version of a popular brand, like the BK logo in your post.
I looked up some boards from the nineties, sometimes they were straight up ripoffs. Plan b made a series in 1993 that had star wars characters on them.
Included is a picture of Jason Lee in the 90's, I didn't even look for him, he just popped up in GIS when I searched for "nineties skater shirts"
I just remembered, I know a guy that used to print boards during that time. He also did shirts, I should ask him about this.
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Right, there was 7up spoofs, pepsi spoofs.... blah blah blah.
None of these were parodies, just basic rips on the logo used for obviously goofy purposes.
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I had a recent conundrum around purchasing stock art. The regular licence vs extended license issue. I am convincing customers to pay for stock art rather than copying, but the fine print says that if it's going onto tshirts or a product being sold then it needs the extended license which is way, way more pricey.
Seems the lines get a bit blurry here...
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I had a recent conundrum around purchasing stock art. The regular licence vs extended license issue. I am convincing customers to pay for stock art rather than copying, but the fine print says that if it's going onto tshirts or a product being sold then it needs the extended license which is way, way more pricey.
Seems the lines get a bit blurry here...
all of these are USA rules, your laws out there could be completely different. Additionally, the terms of sale for the stock art might not apply eather!
pierre
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I had a recent conundrum around purchasing stock art. The regular licence vs extended license issue. I am convincing customers to pay for stock art rather than copying, but the fine print says that if it's going onto tshirts or a product being sold then it needs the extended license which is way, way more pricey.
Seems the lines get a bit blurry here...
One time I was reading through the terms of use on a font that I had purchased and there was a note about being used for garment printing. It was something like if you are going to print the font on shirts, they had to get a cut or you have to pay more or something, I can't exactly recall. I called them up to find out more and was basically told that so long as you aren't printing thousands of shirts with their type on it, they don't really care.
I am all about making sure everyone gets paid.
The type foundry was House Industries in case any one was interested. They make some really interesting fonts including Sign Painter that I am starting to see everywhere.
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We print for a large skate brand, and they rip off something new each PO. I asked him about the legality and the cease and desist letters he must receive and he said he can wallpaper his warehouse with them. For every letter he receives he writes them back with the PO #'s, and reveals how many they actually produce and not once in 25 odd years has anyone ever taken any further action against them. Qty's are in the 500-2000 piece range. I think in most cases it will cost a corp more to legally strong arm someone than its actually worth, in these cases. If it were 100,000 pieces they may be getting a different letter...
He said "This industry was built on parody branding in the 90's" and its quite true as illustrated with Jason Lee!
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a recent sit down with our corporate lawyer revealed that parody of a logo can be done, however if your brand is a parody of another brand, it won't fly. The example given as a brand parody that was stopped below.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_South_Butt
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Sometimes it's just too bad the big boys can't laugh it off, because that South Butt thing is really funny. A shirt label in South Africa (where I am originally from) was amazing at printing brand parodies and they were constantly fighting court cases while their tees became legendary.
The stock art issue does make sense that for small runs on tees you don't need the extended license but they don't actually have that provision in there so it feels like a minor gamble.