A question

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

If you sell original TMNT fan artwork on e-bay, can Mirage sue you? :P

[Masked Ninja]

Probably. I think even doing fanart is technically illegal, but too many people do fanart and fanfiction for them to stalk the Internet and bust millions of people. They don't usually get annoyed until you start making money off their intellectual property.

[iris]

Didn't I already reply to this in my knowitall voice? :) Or maybe I forgot to hit post.

Anyway... what MN said. $$ = trouble.

Visual art is subject to copyright rules just like any other creative work. Technically, Mirage could take legal action against anyone who publishes something that is obviously derived from their work, regardless of whether it is sold or given away freely, and regardless of whether they are credited. There are some exceptions, such as "reasonable" educational/academic uses and parodies.

In this case there may be trademarks involved too.

Mirage isn't the most vindictive company I've ever seen; IMO they let fans get away with a little more than many other companies. I don't know if selling one bit of art would be egregious enough that they'd actively protect their work by lawsuit, but it would be a blatant violation and if I were on their team I'd consider action. A cease-and-desist letter is a much more likely action than a lawsuit.

There's always the option that few people consider: ask permission. Sometimes it's possible to get a license to use other people's stuff.

[Sewer Bull]

Anyway... what MN said. $$ = trouble.

OT, but provoked by the above statement and by your signature, iris:


I agree with Masked Ninja.
(Just saving myself some typing here.)

You two always agree with everything? Is that scientifically proved? :|


There's always the option that few people consider: ask permission. Sometimes it's possible to get a license to use other people's stuff.

Not in the case of Mirage. All you're going to receive from them is an automated message stating that violating U.S. copyright laws is strictly prohibited in any case.

[iris]

Not in the case of Mirage. All you're going to receive from them is an automated message stating that violating U.S. copyright laws is strictly prohibited in any case.Good to know.

You two always agree with everything? Is that scientifically proved? :|Nah, it's one-sided, and sorta joking. I'm sure I say a lot of crud that MN doesn't agree with. :D But my carpal tunnel was/is acting up (I can't type much) and MN doth maketh much sense... eth. I should take it out of my sig if it's confuzzling people.

[Sewer Bull]

Good to know.

One of the forum members can prove it, if he decides to speak up.


Nah, it's one-sided, and sorta joking. I'm sure I say a lot of crud that MN doesn't agree with. :D But my carpal tunnel was/is acting up (I can't type much) and MN doth maketh much sense... eth. I should take it out of my sig if it's confuzzling people.

Now that does make sense... A cunning move, I'd say. I think I should search for someone like MN and add a statement like that to my sig as well.

[iris]

Now that does make sense... A cunning move, I'd say. I think I should search for someone like MN and add a statement like that to my sig as well.Nobody has ever applied the word "cunning" to me before. :lol:

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

No one would buy my sucky artwork anyway...but I WAS curious.

However, if someone were to PM one of the many fan artists who posts here or has included an e-mail address on their site, and commission a drawing/painting or request to buy finished, already existing original art, no one would know except for the seller, buyer, and whoever the two of them chose to tell. Mirage wouldn't know, the government wouldn't know, etc. I almost feel that it isn't a black and white issue. Consider:

Someone buys a lot of TMNT figures. That person buys a TMNT figure and uses it as a model/reference to do a really good drawing of the character, that someone else wants to buy. Said artist now has MORE money for buying TMNT action figures, which benefits Mirage!!! I'm not saying that Mirage should be encouraging all of us to do fan art, take it to Kinko's and make prints, and then sell those for a profit. I'm simply saying I don't see the harm in someone spending x amount of hours doing an Ace Duck painting and then turning around and making a few dollars off of it, which they are then going to use to buy more figures. This is just my opinion.

Here's my theory on the "automated e-mail." I actually don't believe Mirage would prosecute anyone, because I don't think it would be worth their time. Those guys aren't hurting. They're not rich necessarily, but they aren't hurting. Sending out an automated e-mail like that is, in my opinion, an interesting rhetorical move-- I have a feeling that they don't really care but can't tell us that they don't care because of legal reasons involving other companies and licensing issues. I would think that someone like Steve Murphy would be knowledgable on the subject of simple economics, and I would think that they should be more worried about all the bootleg turtle figures going around on e-bay. I mean, nobody is going to not buy original artwork that Mirage did because fans are selling artwork, but when it comes to action figures, I would think that the bootleg figures actually have a fighting chance when it comes to competing with Playmates.

Again, its one of those things that anyone could do and get away with, so long as the wrong people didn't find out. I think there are a lot of gray areas involved here, and that whether or not to sell a piece of fan art here and there or not should be a personal choice based on a person's own system of ethics. I think Mirage has been more open-minded about all the fan-art and fan-fiction going around because they are more liberal and open-minded than a lot of successful franchises.

[iris]

Mirage probably doesn't care about fan work created and distributed out of love of TMNT. In fact, they seem to appreciate it. For example, they solicit and distribute fan artwork through ninjaturtles.com. Besides, it's bad karma to sue your fans; it's something we avoid. lol

But when you involve money, it may feel less like quaint flattery. Yeah, you can sneak around, and it probably does no harm, and they probably wouldn't give a hoot even if they knew... but if the question is "Can Mirage sue," then the answer is still yes. ;)

Many companies, especially ones with the kind of market saturation that Mirage has, hire copyright protection agencies to watch over their property. The companies might not even hear about the small cases except as a statistic in a report.