Profile for dropowtt - copyright laws (some questions...)

dropowtt aka Kevin is a 22.07 year old boy, has been a member since March 6, 2005, has scored 6332 submissions, giving an average score of 1.96.

URL: http://theartwebreathe.net

Aug 07 '05 by dropowtt

5 Comments

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A friend of mine is going to be starting an independent clothing line using familiar movie images (ie. characters) as the basis of the designs.

As threadless sometimes runs designs with familiar characters (ie. the fast supper), i figured some of you may know what the legal ramifications of this might be.

thanks!

swingliner on Aug 07 '05 at 2:17pm

if the images are used for parody then your friend will have no worries. but from watching tv shows and such, i believe you still need to change the characters up a tiny bit. they just can't be a complete replica.

Piranha Petting Zoo on Aug 07 '05 at 2:22pm

You can't mention the names of the characters, and just to be safe you should change them slightly. And kind of a no-brainer, but you can't just use/trace over images of those characters.

Agency26 on Aug 07 '05 at 4:27pm

a brand called Serial Killer used to be big with their old school heat transfers with actual images from films. They were always walking a tightrope, and a couple of times, they fell and lost some $.

If an image is copyrighted, and you put it on a shirt, you could be responsible for damages up to $20,000 and the plaintiff's attorney's fees, for each design you copy.

Assuming the dude is going to do it, you have to approach each design different. You could do Gary Coleman, because dude can't afford an attorney right now. But if you did Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear, you will feel the pain of an unlimited legal warchest.

maybe you can google up some Serial Killer stuff.