Advice - Selling prints of Commissioned pieces

[quescostumes.livejournal.com]

I've recently heard of an artist who is selling prints that contains other people's characters. The art and style is her own, and the art with characters are either gifts or commissions. The prints for sale include the original piece uploaded to art sites, without any recoloring or hiding others' characters. Should people buy these prints, it's basically making money off of others' designs, right?

It's not okay, right? Is it legal? Rude? Or just frowned upon?

How should someone handle this kind of situation if the artist in question is a friend?

Any advice, A_B?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your very useful replies! :)

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I wanted to add on top of all the answers you're getting that honestly, this isn't going to come up much. You shouldn't be so worried about it.

Be pro-active instead. When commissioning someone, ask if they intend to sell prints and ask if it's okay for yours to not be included (you have to pay more to make up for lost profits). But honestly, it's true that most people aren't going to make prints of random characters and sell them. I've been commissioning art for years and it's never come up.

Also meant to add that prints of giftart is probably going to come up even less than prints of commissioned work.

[stina paulin højgaard (from livejournal.com)]

Yes after reading this thread I am definitely going to ask in the future before I pay for a commission, just to be sure :)

Thank you for your response :)