Copyright Infringement

Ardent123

I was thinking about creating my own webcomic, and that got me wondering. How do copyrights work? I mean, I've seen Penny Arcade parody a lot of famous game, TV, movie, etc characters. How the creators not get sued for everything they own?

Alpine

The case with the guy from Hustler magazine set a pretty important precedent for parodical works. Don't defame the property and you should be safe.

There's a difference between what you could do and what Penny Arcade could do though. Don't push your luck.

Really though, just from personal opinion, webcomics that parody news events and big celebrity figures are a dime a dozen. Set yourself apart by having some actual wit and humor that's based on the characters and situations that you create.

Iroh

Ardent123 wrote: »

I was thinking about creating my own webcomic, and that got me wondering. How do copyrights work? I mean, I've seen Penny Arcade parody a lot of famous game, TV, movie, etc characters. How the creators not get sued for everything they own?

You answered your own question, check the bolded part. Parodies of public figures are protected under the first amendment, and you probably won't run into any threats unless you start talking about people only being able to jack off after killing a puppy.

Ardent123

Alpine wrote: »

Really though, just from personal opinion, webcomics that parody news events and big celebrity figures are a dime a dozen. Set yourself apart by having some actual wit and humor that's based on the characters and situations that you create.

Don't worry, I'm not parodying anything really....just using a certain characters. Such as one of my characters having a blow-up doll of an anime girl I'm in love with...so on and so forth.

Blake T

Iroh wrote: »

Ardent123 wrote: »

I was thinking about creating my own webcomic, and that got me wondering. How do copyrights work? I mean, I've seen Penny Arcade parody a lot of famous game, TV, movie, etc characters. How the creators not get sued for everything they own?

You answered your own question, check the bolded part. Parodies of public figures are protected under the first amendment, and you probably won't run into any threats unless you start talking about people only being able to jack off after killing a puppy.

Really? Did that one ended up being pulled? I knew about the Strawberry shortcake one but was there a giant who har about that one as well?

Æthelred

Ardent123 wrote: »

Alpine wrote: »

Really though, just from personal opinion, webcomics that parody news events and big celebrity figures are a dime a dozen. Set yourself apart by having some actual wit and humor that's based on the characters and situations that you create.

Don't worry, I'm not parodying anything really....just using a certain characters. Such as one of my characters having a blow-up doll of an anime girl I'm in love with...so on and so forth.

Sexy Losers? It slightly sounds like it from your post, so I'll just add that parody doesn't include lifting a character from another comic. Like, you could have an amusing version of Superman pop in occassionally, but not just copy the character and go 'hey, it's a parody!'

supabeast

As long as you don't actually use any existing property in a parody, ie. using promotional art from a game to mock it, you're ok. Also, you can only use other people's trademarks and copyrighted stuff to parody that specific stuff; that's why PA had to take down the Strawberry Shortcake cartoon, they used an American Greetings trademark to mock American McGee.