The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Legality of this shirt...
Nexus Zero
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I was wondering about the legality of this shirt? I mean, it's ThinkGeek so obviously the design has been authorised, or doesn't need to be, I'm just wondering which of the two it is. Over the summer I'm going to do a few print runs of shirts to see how much potential there is for my designs, and while I won't be doing 'geek' shirts like this one initially, it's definitely something I'm interested in. So, does a design like this need licensing?
Nexus Zero on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Umm...most likely not. SMB has been republished by the original copyright owner fairly recently so it'll still be a privately owned IP. Either the design is ambiguous enough that it skirts copyright infringement or Nintendo have licensed out the characters to specific designers and/or vendors.
www.rockmidgets.com
It takes a lot longer than 20 years for something to enter the public domain.
There are plenty of T-shirt makers that violate copyright law. They take a lot of risks by doing so if the owners of the property they use find out. ThinkGeek might have also had someone draw a mushroom from scratch that looks a lot like the SMB mushroom, but is not identical.
http://www.thelostworlds.net/
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
First off, let me say that I'm not a lawyer, But I work a radio station and we have to deal with copyrights all the time.
The 1up mushroom first appeared in SMB... which appeared in 1985. And according to the Sonny Bono Act ( Full name is the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.) anything copyrighted by a corporation after 1978 is copyrighted for 95 years... So SMB will be up for public domain in 2080.
What I fail to see though is anything on the shirt or the site showing that the 1up mushroom is copyrighted to Nintendo. So I am lead to believe that ThinkGeek is printing them without a care about the copyright, and that you would be able to do also. If Nintendo does bring, the hammer down on you, which I doubt, but if they do, I would point out ThinkGeek as precedence.
But just to reiterate, I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot be sure I've got all the answers. And if you do decide to do anything, you're on your own.
I don't think thinkgeek can be used as precedence to defend yourself against a copyright infraction suit though, unless thinkgeek's right to reproduce that image has already been tested in a court of law. If Nintendo sue you and you say 'But, look thinkgeek!' Nintendo are just likely to say, 'Oh yeah, cool. We'll sue them too. Thanks dude. Ps. 10 million dollars plz.'
Odds are the actual maker of the shirt does have permission and thinkgeek just carries their stock and doesn't actually have any hand in making the shirt.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I am no lawyer, but I do have extensive experience with copyright law as I work in the mass media and have a degree in journalism that included a law school mass media law course (ugh).
Further, is this truly infringement? It could in some views be construed as parody, therefore considered fair use.
Is it worth NoA's money to file an infringement for this shirt? Particularly since in most cases if you can't prove intent to harm or defraud, copyright suits get messy and drawn out because of all the gray area in copyright law surrounding fair use, parody, and common use.
Also, that's not a parody, parodies make a comment about either about the material itself or about some social issue, this is a simple reproduction. Additionally, for fair use, it is less likely to be found when taking the whole work (the picture of the mushroom itself is a protected work, as opposed to the cap which would be part of it), additionly the type of use is looked at (for profit sales of t-shirts) replacing the owners use, and there's more, i just don't want to get my Copyright notes out.