artists_beware | Entries tagged with copyright

tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com

Current Mood: confused

I've never made a post on LJ before so please forgive me if my post is messy.

A little background; I have a project I've been working on for a very long time, and I care for deeply.
But I have not posted any of it online because I wanted to get it copyrighted first. Actual registered copyright with the paperwork and everything. I want more legal standing if someone tried to profit off of it.

The problem is I'm not sure how to do so since I want to basically copyright the fictional setting I've created.
I do plan to eventually do some comics (or graphic novels) based on it but they will have nothing in common with each other.
The setting, culture, worlds and most importantly the 1000+ monsters and characters are what I want to protect.

How does one copyright something like this? Since it's not something like an image or a novel.
Something that will continuously grow and take different forms?
Does it need a particular type of copyright or documentation?

Sorry if my post is confusing at all it's hard putting this into words :/

lovelesskiax.livejournal.com

Hi guys! I'd like a little advice here as I'm not finding much online and this is my first time going about this.
One of my mom's friends is interested in hiring me to design a logo for her business. So far I have discussed an hourly rate for my work, how the process will go, and what she will receive.
What I'm in the dark about is how the copyright process works with a logo? Since I'm making it for her business specifically, should I include copyright fees and rights in the final price or should it be a completely different process? Should I also worry about getting an official contract signed up for this?
Any advice appreciated!

edit: more questions, sorry!
-do i have to get a contract written up by a lawyer, or is it still legally binding if i write one myself?
-what should the copyright fees for a logo be? do i choose it myself, or is there an average price for logos?

thanks again!

enter-data-here.livejournal.com

I know you guys have many posts addressing copyright issues and I know what the general thought is regarding it - however, I did an art piece for a relative and giving copyright over was assumed in this case... no price agreed upon though he promised to pay me, not a problem as it was really a gift and I would have done it for free. It's for his personal brewing company - to my knowledge, not to be sold, just for fun, anyway. So I spend time drawing this image, it's a fully colored piece with no background, something I'd normally charge $50-75 for the image itself on a letter-sized cardstock. I send off the hi-res raw scan and color-corrected scans and will be sending the originals soon.

( read more... )
Is he saying that any paid image automatically is copyright the person buying it? Or that I have to apply for a copyright anytime I want to claim my own art or post it online? Or is all this if I'm working without a TOS beforehand?

Can anyone in the graphic design/art for published works/etc industry experience let me know what is going on with this? My relative - who is a sign maker and deals with this frequently - says something different than what I previously understood about the subject. Just for future reference. Thanks!
( Edit: Additional info. )

gluttonousangel.livejournal.com

This is my first time doing something like this, so I'm a bit nervous, haha. I'm currently in talks with someone on YouTube over providing them with music for their videos and I'm going to be getting paid for my work. I've never sold music before, so I'm trying to work out how best to benefit from the arrangement and how to protect myself, profit and rights wise.

This is what we're currently negotiating;

Payment is a one-off song-by-song basis, with full rights for use and editing transferred to the client, with the agreement that I receive credit for my work and the client receives sole profit from their ad revenue (agreed on)

However, if the client wanted to sell the songs in a soundtrack bundle, the profit would be split between the two of us (just suggested this; waiting to hear back from the client)

I'm also going to ask them to sign a contract, once we've agreed on everything and keeping a few physical and online copies of it, just to cover my ass, so to speak.

Is there anything else I need to do to cover myself and best protect my assess or am I doing okay?

jakejynx.livejournal.com

I understand the rules of art--if you are making a piece of art for a business, or someone that will republish or make money off of it, you should be charging for the rights. But how does this apply to fursuits and other costumes?

I've got a commissioner whom I'm making a suit for, but the suit is based on a copyrighted character. This wouldn't normally be an issue, as I'm basically just building an animal suit, but now I'm finding out that this commissioner owns a mascot/costume company where they do costume rentals and appear at parties. And I'm starting to think that I might actually be making a copyrighted character for this use. If a suit is made for commercial use like this, what does that mean for me, the artist?

EDIT: I feel like I should clarify on what I'm asking, exactly. While I'm certainly interested in the legalities of producing a generic costume that could be turned into a copyrighted character and used for profit, I'm actually more interested in whether or not producing a suit for a business/for use in making a profit would merit an additional charge from the artist? This edit is probably too late to get a response at this point, but there you go. :p

nynylynn.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

Hello, I am new here so I do apologize if my posting may be incorrect, but I have been long contemplating over a couple issues regarding copyright and commissions that I figured to ask here.

As some may know, people sell their characters or hand them over to someone else. I've drawn for people who owned a character, and then later on sell their character and claim that all artwork will belong to the new owner.

My question is, who in actuality, owns the commissioned piece after a character in it is sold? Does the new character owner own the commissioned piece from which the previous owner originally commissioned?

The only reason I ask is because I find that whoever commissions me, owns the image (alongside by my ownership), regardless of the characters involved (given, they either own the characters or have permission to use).

So I appreciate any input on this matter. I don't feel comfortable with my artwork floating around without knowing so, even with my watermark put on it.

In a different, but short matter, I would also like to ask what should I do in the event that someone blatantly tells me they will remove a watermark off a commission they paid for?

Thanks, everyone!

kjorteo

Hello,

I am a buyer attempting to commission some artwork for a novel I've been working on, which is now finally nearing completion.

The novel is split into eight chapters, and I want each chapter to have a little bust-type sketch of one of the eight main characters on the chapter title page. In fact, I have already commissioned a set of busts for the cast for this exact purpose. They are already completed and can be seen here and here and they are lovely. Of course, I dramatically underestimated how early in the process I had this idea versus how long it actually takes to write a novel; these were made three years ago, and the artist has expressed interest in redoing them with the improvements and such she has made in her art since then. I personally thought they looked outstanding already, but if she wants to make them even better, then great! She was a pleasure to work with last time, and I would be delighted to do so again.

The problem that both of us are running into is that neither of us knows what the standard guidelines are for small-scale commercial work. When this novel is done, I intend to put it on some small sale service, such as selling it on the Amazon Kindle marketplace for $2 or so. (If it randomly catches fire and becomes such a smash hit that big-name publishers come in and want to take it, awesome, but I'm honestly not expecting that as a likely outcome.) Therefore, I would technically be profiting off the artist's work, which brings up all the licensing questions and such that neither of us really know. Unfortunately, the problem would persist even if I decided not to get those new updated versions after all; whether I'm using the old ones or the new ones, I'm still using her work in a novel I'm selling. (Besides, I really do want to see what updated versions of them would look like.)

She has asked around, but has not found anything yet. Her exact words from a note I just received:
"[W]hen I posed some questions to friends and groups that supposedly knew, they instead kept referring to larger, much more commercial endeavors than what you are wanting, which is much smaller in scale; I didn't get anything concrete for something specifically like this."

She said she would keep looking, but encouraged me to join in the search in the mean time. Which seems fair; it shouldn't be entirely on her to figure this out if I can help. Of course, the only place I can think to ask is here, so here we are. Ideally, how should my intention to put this novel on something like the Kindle marketplace affect the pricing and permissions and such for commissioning her?

yarbro.livejournal.com

For now, I want to keep the group anonymous and give them a slight benefit of a doubt. Please tell me if I do not make sense, while English is my first native language, I did not learn it properly until the age of 8. So, I struggled with it, even to this day.

I am running into an issue lately that a very popular FB page showing digital photographs but without giving the artist's name or credit. I point this issue out to them saying:

"While this is a good page, I feel that owners of the site should credit the original photographers. Even though they admit they are not the photographers themselves- showing off a photograph without the artist's knowing is consider a form of thief can be a copyrighted issue."

They responded quickly saying they are not the owners of the photos and simply sharing. I replied and explained I acknowledged that but they must give credit to the photographers. The Facebook page owners made then made an excuse saying it would be difficult. I told them I can help to find these artist for them. They had not respond if they accept my assistance or not but continued to upload photos without credit.

So, how should solve this? From I what I read, Facebook is somewhat weird because I cannot report Copyright issues unless I am the original artist of that work (Unless, I read it wrong).

On the one hand- I feel that they are simply appreciation group that means no direct harm to the artist (OR at least not meaning too) and does not have the knowledge on Copyright Laws or how to find and credit the artists.

However, as I watch as they continued to upload photos and ignore my statement and aid- I am growing more suspicious. Especially, they have a website with similar photographs and still does not give credit to the artists. A friend noticed the post I made and said that I should give the name out on AB to see if any artists who watch this Live-journal recognized their artwork- but, I want to get more evidence by screen shots and what pictures they uploaded. I am thinking to find and contact the original artists and tell them about this issue.

*Edited so it doesn't look like one large paragraph

saeto15.livejournal.com

I recently started drawing characters and aliens from the book series "Animorphs", and the art was pretty well-received. So I was thinking about making some keychains and pins for an upcoming con, but I'm not sure about the copyright issue there.

The alien species are recognizable if you'd ever read the series (mostly the hork-bajir and andalites, as most of the rest were never illustrated), but the human characters are generic enough that you wouldn't really know who they are unless you had read the books. Only my art would be used on the keychains/pins, and I wouldn't be using the "Animorphs" logo or anything. I toyed with the idea of having short quotes on the back of the keychains for each character as well, but for right now what I'd be going with is a two-sided keychain for the kids with a morph on one side and a portrait on the other.

So, what do you guys think? Innocent enough that nobody would really care, or should I go with a different idea? Scholastic isn't even publishing the series anymore, much less making merchandise for it (the recent reprint was cancelled for apparent lack of interest) but they do still hold the copyright.

cyiakanami.livejournal.com

Current Mood: calm

So I wanted to start off saying, I've seen some comments vary across the internet on pose copyright/trademark and usage and it seems a lot of people are confused about someone's rights ect. I am sort of in that latter.

I went searching AB and google and couldn't find any good citations of legal standing on if poses and "image concepts" are legally bound as are say trademarked characters or artists legal rights to their art and came up dry on both.
Long story short, I had a commissioner today note me on FA stating someone noticed the pose reference picture that we used on one of their commissions from me. Which would be fine by all means, except this person went on to state I was ripping their friend's art off and it was illegal to use their friends picture as a pose reference and concept for their commission and was pointing out that they would be infuriated if someone did that to them. (Commissioner feigned not knowing about anything on the reference for fear of a drama storm, which is fine by me. I also didn't reply to this person because I wanted to be 110% sure in what I tell them is backed up law and not also start unnecessary drama.) I've also added a link back to the original image we used for the commission pose reference in my fa gallery.

In short, my questions would be, is it ok to reference other artist's art for pose reference whether in personal art or commissioned art if the commissioner requests it? Should we link back to the picture(s) we referenced just the pose from? Are poses and or "concepts of the image" legal to use as reference or do we need to ask the artists permission first?

(Clarification of "concept of image" I'm speaking of would be, a person skate boarding, an android women kissing someone, two characters in a staring look, ect as a few examples off the top of my head right now.)

Thanks for your time.

*EDIT* I wanted to point out, that I think everyone has been looking at the wrong submission. I have an idea of which one you are looking at and have credited back to the original reference. And will be doing so from now on. I appreciate all the feed back and honestly had no idea had to reference back to what pictures I was using for poses. I shall do this from now on. I'll also be adding in my tos about commissioners and referencing poses ect. The submission I am talking about was done middle I think of last year so you would have to do some digging to find that one. And I've already referenced back to that pose on it.
I would rather not post a link to the image in question in public for fear of naming my commissioner without their permission. If anyone would like to see the two images, please message me privately and I can link to them for you. Thanks again for your help!

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! :)

slushienyappy.livejournal.com

Current Mood: cheerful

Hello A_B!
I hope I'am submitting this correctly.

I recently started a new business where I can print on shirts,bags, etc. There is a certain anime I have grown very fond of and in this anime there is an emblem that the main character has. I was concerned about printing this emblem on shirts and selling them. Would it be against copyright laws?

I have seen buttons and various other items on Etsy with the same image being sold...So I figured maybe it was okay! But I still want to be on the safe side so I figured I would ask you guys since you seem very wise :).

I dunno if it will matter much but the anime is called "Tiger and bunny" and the emblem is this http://plamoya.com/bmz_cache/d/d984b749dc6799e97f12b7a3fdd9dac6.image.500x500.jpg

Thank you guys so much for your time!

skylarduvall.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

Hello everyone,

I have purchased a sewing pattern pack from http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/ that includes five different animals for plushies. If I make plushies from these patterns, would I be allowed to sell them? I'm assuming the answer would be yes because I know that a lot of fursuit bodies are made from the McCall's jumpsuit pattern but I don't really know anything about copyrights and such.

Sincerely,
Skylar

skylarduvall.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

the-outcasts.livejournal.com

Hi guys, long time watcher, first time poster. I'm not 100% sure if this belongs here but I've seen some advice posts similar in the past.

Recently a friend pointed out to me that some of my old art has been reposted onto a website without my permission. The thing is though, I remember the same site doing this to me years ago (I'm talking 12+ years ago), and I had requested the art to be removed, and they had oblidged.

So when I went back now years later I find that the exact same art is still there, along with some new additions (again old art, but I know it wasn't there when I had asked for the first removal).

The site has an FAQ relating to art removal requests, but when I checked it it says:

FAQ #7: I am an artist and someone told me my art is here.. how to i get it removed? Or, I asked my art to be removed, It _WAS_, but now it is back?
You contact one of the staff and let us know, we will take it down! This site does not condone art theft, all an artist need do is ask.
Any artist folders removed, get recycled back into the site at the beginning of each year. You want it to stay gone? You have to care enough to keep coming back.
If your art is here, it's likely because someone was browsing, found it, liked it.. and wanted to share it with more people, or preserve it if your site goes away. You should feel honored that they love your art enough to spread it, and instead, ask us to put a link to your site in your artist folder!

The bold part is what concerns, and quite frankly annoys me: my question is is such a thing allowed? I know a simple request isn't a concrete agreement, but when an artist says remove my art, it means remove my art, not recycle it for reupload a year later. And is there a way to make them permanent remove the art without them being sneaky about it?

I don't mind reposting, but at the same time I do want control over where my art goes as much as I'm able to. And I find it a bit rude that they're ignoring requests like this. I'm not honored by this in the least, it's not up to them to decide what to do.

Thank you in advance, I'm hope I'm doing this right and this is the only time I have to post here.

EDIT: Firstly thank you so so much for the quick response everyone! I'm at work now so I'll try to respond back as much as possible.

And yes the site is http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 - the site has been around for years from what I remember, but like I said, I figured if I had asked them to take art down 12+ years ago it should stay down, but apparently not.

the-outcasts.livejournal.com

spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

I've been wondering, if someone creates an open species and offers it up to whoever wants to create a character of that species, do they have the right to dictate who can create a fursuit/sculpture/plushie of the character you've created?

For example, if someone creates an open species, and I made a character of that species, does the species creator have the right to say “You can only have a suit/sculpture/plushie made by this certain maker”?

What if the maker they’ve selected is someone I don’t want to commission, for whatever reason? Can I then get another maker to create my suit/sculpture/plushie, or do I need permission of the person who created the species to begin with?

Basically, what are the "rules" of an open species? Does the creator retain any sort of control over the outcome of people using said species or do they just have to accept that people are going to do what they wish with their characters?

My understanding is that the species creator retains the copyright of the species itself, but when it comes to individual characters, they don’t have much say. The owner of the *character* is not obliged to adhere to the rules the species creator laid out, at least when it comes to commissioning physical items. If I’m spending the money on a commission, I don't want to spend it on a product I'll ultimately be unhappy with, simply because whomever created the species decided I had to use a certain maker.

Help me,A_B Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com

Current Mood: curious

myenia.livejournal.com

This is more of an advice post, since this community seems to have a wealth of copyright knowledge.

Years ago, I did an image for a forum I used to visit, which ended up being used on their front page. Recently, I found out that it was used without proper credit or permission in a magazine (without their knowledge until it was in print). Upon finding this out, and looking back to the forum, I found posts stating that the situation was being handled, though 4 days had passed and nobody had bothered contacting me.

My understanding is that, since the image was done free of cost, without prompting or organization, and without contract, the copyright is fully and completely mine. I of course posted the image on the forum stating that it was for their use on the front page. While it was years ago and I cannot clarify details (login no longer works), I know that nothing was legally or formally worked out, it was simply made as a gift for usage on the forum. If I understand copyright laws correctly, I retain my full copyright in doing so, while extending non-exclusive usage to the forum for the specified intent only. While they call this image their "logo" and it has the forum's initials in the background, I assume that without a contract specifying otherwise, rights stay with me and they do not "own" this image in any way.

If the above is true, this means that if a magazine printed my image, nobody should be"handling" it but me. Not that I mind their involvement... I understand that it may have some emotional significance to them, and for me, its old art that I care little about. What I do care about is that I feel I'm constantly battling people ignorant of copyright laws, assuming they own things that I own. I feel like a selfish jerk for having to explain this to them, but I also feel like I've had two parties step on my toes and try to claim my copyright, instead of just the one, which is incredibly frustrating.

So, are there any legal flaw in the above?

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"Artists Beware"

A Community to Warn of the Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Commission World

Entries tagged with copyright

Copyright advice please.

Advice with Logos

Advice about Copyright and all that.

[Looking for advice] Selling music/rights of use?

Question on Usage for fursuits

Copyright & Commission Clarification?

Pricing for small-scale commercial work

I need Advise: Facebook Group might be unwilling to give credit to Photographers

Question about copyright

Advice needed for pose(c)/Trademark?

Advice - Selling prints of Commissioned pieces

(no subject)

Selling Plushie made from Pattern

Selling Plushie made from Pattern

Just after some advice

Just after some advice

Advice on open species?

Advice on open species?

Advice on open species?

Copyright Clarification

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December 2017

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