Am I gonna get sued?

[valiantman]

Here's another (kind of stupid) thought...

 

What if the graphic was altered so that there was a guitar in the tiki monster's left hand?

 

Wouldn't that immediately put the image into "parody"?

(The way Futurama (Zap Brannigan, set in 3000AD) is a parody of Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000AD, etc.)

[the blob]

but he'd still be duping the artwork, which is kindah a slam dunk for the copyright owner

 

you'd have a better shot at it being parody if you re-did the whole thing...but I'm guessing that's not in his band's budget. and if you re-did the whole thing, TW is likely to not care. it's not like it's a cover swipe from action 1 or detective 27.

[adamstrange]

So I am in a three-piece band (two guys and one gal). We play pop alterno music. I recently made some homemade T -shirt using one of my favorite covers of the silver age, So, is this OK to make en masse. Either way what do you think?

 

That you should use a better scan!

 

[Park]

I am guessing here, but with the title of this thread being "Am I gonna get sued?" and the fact that I haven't seen any of the lawyers that frequently post here chime in on this thread, I would say you are probably safe.

 

Of course, I could be wrong and they are all racing to be the first to contact DC and grind you into tiny little pieces.

 

Either way, it is a cool shirt.

[divad]

It's a little more complicated than this but to avoid trademark/copyright infringment you need to make the image approx 34% different than the original.

 

If you make enough changes from the original....it becomes different enough to be considered it's own image.

 

Of course any trademarked phrases or copyrighted characters would have to be changed/eliminated.

 

 

Actually, this is a lot of hooey . . . Just where did you study the law of copyrights? It also appears that you don't understand the distinction between the two, trademark and copyright.

 

[divad]

So I am in a three-piece band (two guys and one gal). We play pop alterno music. I recently made some homemade T -shirt using one of my favorite covers of the silver age, So, is this OK to make en masse. Either way what do you think?

 

That you should use a better scan!

 

 

 

[Tatterdamillion]

So I am in a three-piece band (two guys and one gal). We play pop alterno music. I recently made some homemade T -shirt using one of my favorite covers of the silver age, So, is this OK to make en masse. Either way what do you think?

 

That you should use a better scan!

 

No hammers please! Yeah the scan was of a cgc'd book on a crappy school scanner at my friends place. Thanks everyone for the two to ten cents. Thanks to you who liked the shirt as well!

[the blob]

I am guessing here, but with the title of this thread being "Am I gonna get sued?" and the fact that I haven't seen any of the lawyers that frequently post here chime in on this thread, I would say you are probably safe.

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Please note that none of this should be contrued as legal advice or relied upon in any way whatsoever and I am likely not admitted to practice in your jurisdiction:

 

At my prior job I represented Time Warner over the course of 8 years, even dabbled on a few intellectual property matters for them (albeit, trademark) and referred a couple of egregious ebay infringements to their attention. Does that qualify?

 

The consensus here is that if they find out, particularly because this is so small scale, he'd first get a cease and desist letter. And if he continued to distribute the infringing image after getting the letter, they might sue him just because they have to police their copyrights/trademarks even if it isn't worth the money to pursue him.

 

Then again, because we're likely dealing with a registered copyright, they could pursue statutory damages and atty fees. I'm fuzzy on the $ #s right now, but each statutory infringement could be $150,000 (not for every copy of the t-shirt printed up). Attorney fees could be more than that. And they could get awarded all of this because they asked you to stop. Also, if they ever got wind of this thread, they'd use it against you.

 

They can take your home, garnish your wages, etc. Judgments last for 25 years or so, depending on the state. Bankruptcy may or may not discharge this, I don't know.

 

I had one guy who figured that because an author is dead, his works are public domain. He distributed numerous titles/copies of the author's work. He specialized in this. The author's kids got wind of it and I represented them (well, not me alone, but I did most of the work). After a trial on federal court, we won a judgment of more than $500K against him, although he only made about $1500-$2000 in profits. He wound up mortgaging his house, selling his boat, dipping into his retirement funds, etc. to pay off the judgment.

 

If they want to make your life annoying, they can do it.

[MrBedrock]

Just an observation. We spend a lot of time here talking about how artists from the past were used and abused by the publishers. Artists received little pay relative to the money generated by their creations. Artists rarely got ownership of their creations. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing DC has been good about is paying royalties to artists and writers for material used in their Archives hard cover and Showcase soft cover reprints. By using this image without doing the same don't you feel a little guilty about depriving Russ Heath (I am pretty sure he did this cover) of some royalty money?

[Ringfinger]

Cool shirt BTW.

[the blob]

Send Heath a check for $50 asking him to let you use the image!

[Tatterdamillion]

Just an observation. We spend a lot of time here talking about how artists from the past were used and abused by the publishers. Artists received little pay relative to the money generated by their creations. Artists rarely got ownership of their creations. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing DC has been good about is paying royalties to artists and writers for material used in their Archives hard cover and Showcase soft cover reprints. By using this image without doing the same don't you feel a little guilty about depriving Russ Heath (I am pretty sure he did this cover) of some royalty money?

I do not feel guilty. I love what Heath has done in the field, and I am in a small unknown band that will probably never produce the shirt en masse. I thought it homage to that which I love and a nod to the people in the know. Yay.

[MrBedrock]

Just an observation. We spend a lot of time here talking about how artists from the past were used and abused by the publishers. Artists received little pay relative to the money generated by their creations. Artists rarely got ownership of their creations. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing DC has been good about is paying royalties to artists and writers for material used in their Archives hard cover and Showcase soft cover reprints. By using this image without doing the same don't you feel a little guilty about depriving Russ Heath (I am pretty sure he did this cover) of some royalty money?

I do not feel guilty. I love what Heath has done in the field, and I am in a small unknown band that will probably never produce the shirt en masse. I thought it homage to that which I love and a nod to the people in the know. Yay.

 

Then make 'em and wear away! I was in a little ol' punk/rock deal for a couple of years. Played guitar and had a ball. We used all kinds of comic images for flyers and ads (never made any shirts). If commerce isn't the plan, then I have no problem with it. Heck, I have no problem with it if your were planning on printing millions of them (but DC and Heath might). I was just asking if you had a problem with it. You obviously don't. So wear 'em proudly, and make some noise!

[Tatterdamillion]

Thanks! It is great when I get some recognition on the street from comic people on the street. I was going to try and use a 70's HOM cover with the three kids on it next. A little photoshopping will be in order. (I'll email adamstrange for some high grade scans because he has the coolest books sincerely

[grandz-migration]

Why not just use the cover images as reference, and take the worry out of it?

[EastCoastExchange-migratio]

You need to ask permission through the use of a letter. I did for my logo and business card. DC comics is very lenient. Often times they will let you use a logo free of charge.

 

Here is a link to DC Comics/MAD Magazine Rights and Permission Department. It will take you step by step on how to legally go about using a copyrighted logo. Please let me know if you need any extra help!

[Aman619]

Just an observation. We spend a lot of time here talking about how artists from the past were used and abused by the publishers. Artists received little pay relative to the money generated by their creations. Artists rarely got ownership of their creations. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing DC has been good about is paying royalties to artists and writers for material used in their Archives hard cover and Showcase soft cover reprints. By using this image without doing the same don't you feel a little guilty about depriving Russ Heath (I am pretty sure he did this cover) of some royalty money?

I do not feel guilty. I love what Heath has done in the field, and I am in a small unknown band that will probably never produce the shirt en masse. I thought it homage to that which I love and a nod to the people in the know. Yay.

 

I was on your side until this flippant post. Sorry. Your "homage" is someone else's property. You started this thread in the guise of caring about whats legal and within your rights, but clearly you just wanted to go ahead. I really still dont think its a big deal to DC, but, I also dont think your attitude expressed in that post is very cool or admirable.

 

I mean, go for it if you want to, but dont say its an homage to Russ Heath. To him, now, you are just one more parasite (his perspective, not mine) taking advantage of creative work he gets no royalties from. Why not ask good ol Russ to come over and repaint it for you too, with your changes, you know, as an homage for a "fan".

[comix4fun]

It's a little more complicated than this but to avoid trademark/copyright infringment you need to make the image approx 34% different than the original.

 

If you make enough changes from the original....it becomes different enough to be considered it's own image.

 

Of course any trademarked phrases or copyrighted characters would have to be changed/eliminated.

 

 

Actually, this is a lot of hooey . . . Just where did you study the law of copyrights? It also appears that you don't understand the distinction between the two, trademark and copyright.

 

 

Maybe you should read thru the entire thread I clarified this comment later on in the thread.....it would prevent alot of that undie wadding you got goin' on.

 

Trademarks can apply to images but also words and phrases and identifying marks.

 

Copyrights apply to expressions of ideas or information and thus can be a written document or story but also a character.

 

Trade dress, logo and overall look and design can be trademarked and those are the ones that need to be altered or changed to avoid confusion by the consumer, of course the fact that it is a band and not a publisher of comics that is using the image is actually a defense for the band as it is harder to assume confusion when the fields, audiences and customers are not necessarily the same.

 

The 34% was a standard that was applied in a trademark case I worked on years ago. It was a rule of thumb a single judge used. It is different in every case as it is in the eye of the beholder and the image on it's totality, along with several other factors to determine the likeness of the image and likelihood that confusion will result.

 

If you don't think phrases, and words can be trademarked or that characters can be copyrighted I feel I should be asking you where you studied.....

 

C

[Tatterdamillion]

Just an observation. We spend a lot of time here talking about how artists from the past were used and abused by the publishers. Artists received little pay relative to the money generated by their creations. Artists rarely got ownership of their creations. Etc. Etc. Etc.

One thing DC has been good about is paying royalties to artists and writers for material used in their Archives hard cover and Showcase soft cover reprints. By using this image without doing the same don't you feel a little guilty about depriving Russ Heath (I am pretty sure he did this cover) of some royalty money?

I do not feel guilty. I love what Heath has done in the field, and I am in a small unknown band that will probably never produce the shirt en masse. I thought it homage to that which I love and a nod to the people in the know. Yay.

 

I was on your side until this flippant post. Sorry. Your "homage" is someone else's property. You started this thread in the guise of caring about whats legal and within your rights, but clearly you just wanted to go ahead. I really still dont think its a big deal to DC, but, I also dont think your attitude expressed in that post is very cool or admirable.

 

I mean, go for it if you want to, but dont say its an homage to Russ Heath. To him, now, you are just one more parasite (his perspective, not mine) taking advantage of creative work he gets no royalties from. Why not ask good ol Russ to come over and repaint it for you too, with your changes, you know, as an homage for a "fan".

I am pretty sure I am not being flippant. I am also pretty sure I am a stand up person. And things tend to get rowdy in here because it is easy to misunderstand a simple statement especially in written form. There really is no guise either. I have made one shirt printed on an iron on and asked a question whether it is legal or not if I were to proceed and make some. I have made zero dollars on the shirt so I do not think I have much to offer Mr. Heath. My bandmates didn't think the shirt was all that cool because they didn't know what a Sea Devil was but if I wore it to a nerd convention there would be at least a little love. On an aside.There is a band named The Marginal Prophets who on their first album sampled just about everyone under the sun from Zep to Camper Van and in the liner notes asked to not be sued because they were nobody. They said if they ever made money they would pay royalties to the parties concerned. I thought wow that is nuts but I am pretty sure they are still just a talented no name band that never got sued. In fact Keith Knight of the band puts out a comic strip and is always at WonderCon.