Content Paradise Copyright Query

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DK
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Content Paradise Copyright Query

Post by DK »

Hi All.

I have seen a couple South Park Type Characters on CP of late which spurred me into thinking about Copyright. Where would one stand if a seller created a Bugs Bunny or Homer Simpson character and sold it on CP? Would it be legal to:

A - Sell it in the first place?

B- Use the character in a project commercially or for personal use?

I have an idea what the answers are but would like to throw it open to discussion.

Cheers
D.K
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

The Berne Convention defines the generally accepted rules for copyright. detail of laws vary from country to country.

The UK Intellectual Property Office says that you would not normally need to seek permission if you wish to use less than a substantial part of a copyright protected work. There are exceptions that allow limited use of copyright works without the permission of the copyright owner such as:

Non-commercial research and private study
Criticism, review and reporting current events
Teaching in educational establishments
Helping visually impaired people

caricature, parody or pastiche is not yet(?) permitted use in UK law (there was a proposal to change it - not sure if this has happened yet) although it might be considered to be 'fair dealing' - loosley defined as use when the economic impact on the owner is not significant.

Importantly copyright applies even if the medium is changed - e.g. a painting is still protected if you re-draw it in a digital medium.


IMO, to copy a copyrighted character for commercial gain where you don't have a licence to use the material in such a way is in breach of just about every country's copyright laws. Not sure if CP would also be in breach by knowingly allowing copyrighted material to be sold (and I imagine taking a cut from the proceeds). Time to hire a lawyer?!
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DK
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Post by DK »

Great reply hayasidist :)

I totally agree. This is an area where percentage people should be policing their content a bit more closely. ;)

EDIT: Sellers may like to note also that you never know how your CP content is going to used.

Cheers
D.K
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InfoCentral
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Post by InfoCentral »

Absolutely not allowed. Over here in the United States I have been told Disney is going to preschools and telling them they need to take the characters they painted off their walls or license the use of them.
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DK
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Post by DK »

Holy Cow!!! I guess even kids can be guilty of Copyright Infringement now too.

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D.K
Joelsquare
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Post by Joelsquare »

Interesting thread.

I think it's important to note that interpretations of The Berne Convention do differ greatly from country to country.

Regarding the South Park characters on CP, I've seem some of them, and while they are clearly "in the style of", the creators and users are in the clear because they aren't actual South Park characters. You could make a convincing Simpsons style character, but unless it's actually an actual Simpsons character, you'd be fine.

I'm surprised the UK has no provisions for parody. Even in a litigious atmosphere like you find in the USA, there are great allowances given for parody - think of Mad magazine. Actually, if you want some super nerdy and interesting reading, Google the various court cases against Mad, a few of them are precedent setting.

Back to CP... If you made an actual Homer Simpson, or an actual Bugs Bunny and posted it for sale, you would definitely be in trouble, because you'd be plagiarizing, as well as distributing, for profit, properties that you don't have license to distribute. I assume that when you submit to CP, you are required to check a box that states that you have the right / own copyright / own publishing rights / are the sole creator and owner, etc. of your submission. This makes it your responsibility. So when Joe End-User gets sued by Warner Bros. for making a Bugs Bunny cartoon and says "Hey I bought this from Content Paradise who said I could use it however I wanted", Warner Bros. will then go to CP who will say "Hey, the guy that submitted this art to us stated that he has all legal rights to distribute this property" and thusly, it becomes the legal problem of the fella who posted it in the first place.

Hope this helps,
Joel

*** disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. I'm in Canada, and Canada interprets Berne Convention rules differently than the US and the UK. And finally, I'm a music composer/producer, not an animator, but I'd think that the intellectual property laws that apply to music are the same as the ones that apply to animated characters.
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

re UK and legality of copying copyright works for Parody.

The Hargreaves Review published in May 2011 recommended that the UK law be changed so that there will be a substantial opening up of the UK’s copyright exceptions regime. This will include ... proposals for a limited private copying; ... and to introduce an exception for parody.

the Government largely accepted the review findings and are in the process of public consultation on some key proposals. The consultation period ends on 11 November 2011.

The Government plans to issue a draft of updated copyright laws in Spring 2012.
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InfoCentral
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Post by InfoCentral »

Over here in the US you can actually take someones song and rewrite the words to make it a parody and resell it as your own work. Totally legal.
sbtamu
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Post by sbtamu »

InfoCentral wrote:Over here in the US you can actually take someones song and rewrite the words to make it a parody and resell it as your own work. Totally legal.
Thanks to Weird Al...

Whats funny is I said "thanks to Weird Al" before I even clicked on the link. I knew where it was going...
Sorry for bad animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/sbtamu
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hayasidist
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Post by hayasidist »

at the risk of overstepping the guidelines on political comment ...

yeah - we're sometimes a bit behind the curve over here and maybe the "mother of parliaments" has realised that she needs to learn from some of her more enlightened kids!? :D

the Weird Al link was interesting -- because it says that " the supreme court decided that parodies fell under the fair use ...". "Fair use" is how much parody (and what could be regarded as near libel) currently gets into the UK satirical press etc. Nonetheless, the editor of one such UK publication (http://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers.php?showme=1300&) is a frequent unwillinging visitor to the High Court. He loses more often than he wins.
rocky53204
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Post by rocky53204 »

The 'Center for the Study of the Public Domain' at Duke University has a COMIC BOOK AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD ON THIS SUBJECT.
(USA law issues only) You can find it at...

http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

For a most interesting spin on the subject see:

http://questioncopyright.org/sita_distribution

which has an animation without copyright. (and do visit the Nina Paley blog!)
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