unforum

[FSURobbie]

Ok, so after 2 hours of work I have vector recreation of the Flynn Lives logo. I printed it out side by side with the original and it's hard to tell them apart. I was going to post them but had a thought...

During Why So Serious? a couple of people made a lot of money off of knock-off Citizens for Batman tee shirts. They got a hold of an original and made a bunch of copies and sold them off as the real deal, make a big profit and duping a lot of folks looking for genuine TDK swag.

So it occurred to me that by posting this I might be helping such folks rip others off yet again. I'm trying to think of a way to help folks make their own Flynn Lives tees without enabling the shady people out there that would definitely take advantage of the situation but I'm not having a lot of luck.

Thoughts?

[Waterborn2o2p]

Personally, I say don't do it. I want swag as much as the next person, but as mentioned earlier, you ARE dealing with someone's (Disney's) IP. Beside, the coolest part about have SWAG like this is the tale that comes along with how you go it.

[Nighthawk]

as far as Intellectual Property is concerned, there are two companies you don't EVER try to cross: LucasArts and Disney.

For example, Disney sued a preschool for using one of their images as decoration.

If we are to proceed with this, we definitely need their blessing.

[DarkJaguar]

I think if you're not trying to make money off them, and are doing it for 'noble' reasons, then why the heck not?

Whether you want to admit it or not, the "shady people" have already figured out how to make their false swag, and are going to do it anyways.

Come upon those people, and report them for the greedy bastards they are, I say.

[FSURobbie]

I didn't plan on selling the logo, I was only going to post it for people who wanted to make home-made Flynn Lives tee shirts...My only hesitation is whether someone would boost it and make an illegal profit off of it and I would be held responsible.

I do realize that scammers would have just as easy a time recreating it as I did, I'm just concerned that if Disney did crack down on folks who hypothetically sold fake FL tees that I would get dragged into it.

I just wanted to help people make homemade tees, but now I'm a little leery the more I think about it. The other thing is we wont be getting any "blessing" from Disney as I really don't imagine they are going to come online and say, "Hey, this is the Legal Dept. at Disney, make as many homemade tees as you want as long as you don't sell them."

Bah.

I'll probably just keep it to myself. Not sure I want to deal with the possible fall out...

[emeraldbeacon]

Might only make it available on a person-by-person basis, after securing an e-mail from them where they say, without reservation, that they intend to use it for personal, not-for-profit purposes, and release you from all responsibility in how they choose to use the design. That way, if something DOES go south, you've got an electronic paper trail that proves you did not profit and released your design under the assumption it would be used for not-for-profit purposes.

(note that non-profit has a distinctly different legal definition than not-for-profit)

[Euchre]

Well, it is a thorny thing worrying about being implicated for enabling the pirates and counterfeiters even if that wasn't your intention. Of course, you could always pull a 'G.I. Joe' to help protect against such abuses. It is, of course, all about the subtleties.

If the image on the site were just a touch larger, there'd be no cause for you to make an image, but alas it's just not quite big enough to work all that well.

As for LucasArts, I've seen plenty of fan derivative works. Lucas has pretty much given open license to create things within the Star Wars universe, if it's not for profit, does not detract from or diminish the reputation or popularity of the franchise, and does not seriously violate canon. When Kevin Smith talked to Lucas about making Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, apparently George's greatet concern was that only bad guys wield red light sabers (as per canon). Really, that simple.

Disney has been similarly lenient toward private individuals creating works for themselves alone. I'm sure if you painted their characters on your baby's room walls, they aren't going to come beat your door down looking for you. If you operate a public nursery school that's another matter - they don't want to be thought of as endorsing an institution they have no control or vested interest in.

If Disney was really overly agitated about enabling home made fan art, I think the papercraft page for the Bits would have long been assaulted with a legal takedown.

Learn more about Fair Use to consider your courses of action:
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use (relative to copyright law)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_%28U.S._trademark_law%29 (relative to trademark law)

[FSURobbie]

[Nighthawk]

You can add it as an attachment.

Or you can send it to me and I can host it if need be. I'm not lacking drive space or bandwidth these days (I have seven GoDaddy hosting accounts).

[Ping Cruft]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Arcade Aid Poster Redux.

Decided to try my hand at making it a little better by combining other elements off the arcade aid site. Had to eyeball the triangle ship and the 'ghosts' to recreate those. The border is somewhat intentional sense I wanted to have something so that even if someone goes with thumbtacks instead of a frame the image isn't filled with holes.

i'd like to think people won't take this as official swag, especially since the source image seems to be widely available, but I dunno. You people be the judge.

[Euchre]

Never put a copyright mark on in someone else's name, especially when you've modified the work. You can state that the content (the original image) is copyright of the of the author or that it is their property and they reserve the rights to the image.

Other than that, cool stuff.

[Ping Cruft]

...actually that's the copyright mark from their site. Probably should change it to 42 entertainment (they own everything related to the ARG right?)

[thebruce]

I'd say don't even worry about the copyright. The image is freely available, and if you name it, perhaps even supply the source url, and not imply that it's your own work, that should certainly be enough (or, if you have modified the content, maybe a small disclaimer saying the image is modified, based on the original content). Having the border and title I think is great, and definitely keep it as a lossless full sized GIF or PNG.

[Ping Cruft]

Fixed.

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