Copyright question about images on T-Shirts

[danicah]

I have found a funny Hello Kitty-picture on the web where she's holding a kalshnikov and it says "Kalashnikitty" on the bottom. I thought it was funny...

Does anyone know if i need to ask permission to use those pictures on my T-Shirts in SL? And if yes, who do i ask?

Maybe the picture was made up by someone without permission too, who knows? You can find funny pictures everywhere on the web, so i am not sure if i can freely use this "Kalashnikitty" picture?

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Might try contacting their Copyright agent

mail to:
Copyright Designated Agent
c/o Sanrio, Inc.
570 Eccles Avenue
South San Francisco, CA 94080

Or contact their customer service thru their website @ http://www.sanrio.com/customer_service/

 

Depends on if you plan on selling them or making them for fun for your self without distribution

Kalashnikitty is probably not within their rights of use

[danicah]

ok i was just wondering because you can find hundreds of clothes with hello kitty, barbie, bratz or whatever on them... Does that mean those designers had to ask permission too before putting them on their clothes?

 

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Here is a list of their products that are copyrighted http://www.sanrio.com/copyright .I would imagine some did not ask permission. I am not sure if Hello Kitty is in world. they could be

[Freya Mokusei]

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danicah wrote:

you can find hundreds of clothes with hello kitty, barbie, bratz or whatever on them

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I wouldn't recommend following what others have done; I would make sure that you are not infringing on copyright law and intellectual property.

[Fenimore Hapmouche]

Did those other designers ask the actual right owners for permission to use the pictures/characters/whatever? Probably not, but who knows.

Should they have? Absolutely.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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danicah wrote:

Does that mean those designers had to ask permission too before putting them on their clothes?

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Yes.

However, there are exceptions. For example, if someone transformed Hello Kitty into a parody of herself, poking fun at the entire franchise or consumerism in general, the result may qualify as a derivative work of significant originality, and the use of Sanrio's character in that context would constitute fair use.

Kalashnikitty may be such a case, but that doesn't mean the image isn't copyrighted. Unless you created the image yourself, you'd still have to ask for permission to use it on your shirts. Whether you ask Sanrio or the creator of the derivative work is up to you. You'd risk a takedown by either party. So you might as well not bother at all and use the picture without permission, hoping that whoever owns the copyright won't care. That's what a lot of people do in SL, and apparently they get away with it most of the time.

[Shelby Silverspar]

Basically when it comes to intellectual property, if you didn't create it then you need permission to use it. Some things are in the public domain and fall outside of copyright and trademark laws, but if you don't know for sure, err on the side of caution and don't use it.

[Vegro Solari]

Even more basically, don't sweat about IP and use the pic you like for your SL shirt! Monkey see, monkey do! A lot of people who are not uptight copyright lawyers still believe this is a natural and inalienable human right.

If you ran a huge shirt printing business then you'd have some reason to worry over legalities of the images you want to use, but don't let all that parsimonious fine print spoil your fun creating and enjoying SL!

[Shelby Silverspar]

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Vegro Solari wrote:

Even more basically, don't sweat about IP and use the pic you like for your SL shirt! Monkey see, monkey do! A lot of people who are not uptight copyright lawyers still believe this is a natural and inalienable human right.

If you ran a huge shirt printing business then you'd have some reason to worry over legalities of the images you want to use, but don't let all that parsimonious fine print spoil your fun creating and enjoying SL!

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Yeah, why let pesky things like ethics and legality spoil your day...

 

 

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Shelby Silverspar wrote:

Yeah, why let pesky things like ethics and legality spoil your day...

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If you thought copyright was about ethics, this will spoil your day:

Is Copyright Ethical? An Examination of the Theories, Laws and Practices Regarding the Private Ownership of Intellectual Work in the United States

[Shelby Silverspar]

Copyright is about using other people's stuff. That's it. I create art. You choose to use it without my permission. Referring to online articles to justify your actions may work for you but it doesn't work for me. I choose not to use other people's work without permission. You are free to do whatever your conscience dictates.

[Vegro Solari]

Shelby, to me it seems that your thinking would become at once clearer and less prejudiced against online academia + their well researched ethics articles if you were willing to question your own relationship with the copyright concept from the roots of it, up. You're calling it "using other people's stuff", but that already presumes a certain kind of judgement made about so many things that are central to the ethical controversy, and are so far undecided. I think you made this judgement unconsciously, not really thinking it through, just following the spirit of the times, and there's no way to say for certain if you're right or wrong, but I'm sure you'll agree that is a very dangerous thing to do (not thinking a thing through) when considered in general.

To wit, it remains to be shown that when someone creates something, the right to copy it is somehow "their stuff".

It remains to be shown that punishing everybody else for "infringing" this supposedly exclusive right to copy is good for society, the intellectual ecology, and even the artist's own mental health.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Shelby Silverspar wrote:

Copyright is about using other people's stuff. That's it. I create art.

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LOL

Show me your "art", and I'll show you the stuff you stole from others and used without permission.

[Shelby Silverspar]

Not funny, or even slightly accurate. I'm an artist in RL, employed, and have to be very copyright-aware so my clients and I don't get sued.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Shelby Silverspar wrote:

Not funny, or even slightly accurate. I'm an artist in RL, employed, and have to be very copyright-aware so my clients and I don't get sued.

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Yes, those generic patterns you put on your textures are so artistic, so original, so uniquely yours, no one would ever claim to have seen that kind of stuff a thousand times before.