Advice needed for selling prints!

[roxyfur.livejournal.com]

Hey guys! I have a question regarding selling prints of artwork I have done, but as commissions.

Is it legal for me to do this? And is this commonly done? Does this look bad on me as an artist? I haven't ever sold prints before, so I really have no idea. I haven't sold the customer the copyright to the image, just charged them for rendering the image like is typically done. Some of my commission pieces I would like to sell as prints at a future con because they turned out really well.

(I would obviously ask the commissioner if it's okay with them, since it's their fursona in the picture.)

Thanks!

Comments

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

Not really, no. Your example only works if the character is copyrighted or trademarked, like with Disney. However, pretty sure most furries do not have a copyright or trademark on their character. Only the art on the reference sheet is copyrighted, not the actual design.

If the designs were copyrightable on the spot, furries would be suing other furries left and right all the time.

[aeto.livejournal.com]

This has nothing to do with trademark. Copyright, at least in North America, is an automatic thing. See http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#register and the following question. In particular, "Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." There's no "oh, they didn't ACTUALLY copyright the work" argument; it's automatic.

That means the representation of a character IS immediately copyrighted. Any derivative work of that piece is also subject to the initial copyright. Here's the actual text of the law: A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”. (17 USC 101)

If you draw a piece which contains aspects of another piece (a reference sheet for example), you've created an elaboration of the art in the reference sheet, this it is a derivative work. It doesn't matter if it's trademarked (and if it is, you're also potentially falling afoul of those laws), derivative work is entirely in the realm of copyright law. The burden of proof that something is actually derivative can be somewhat tricky, but when you've been given a reference sheet and are contracted to draw something based on that reference, that contract is to produce something, by definition, a derivative work.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Like I had to say to the others, this is getting incredibly OT. Please take it to PMS.