Licensing & Copyright Ignorance

People... stop!

I'm pleading with you before you get into a heap o'trouble. I'm talking about borrowing licensed materials and reappropriating them for your resale use.

I was invited to judge an upcoming art event recently. While reviewing the slides for selection, we discovered the overwhelming amount of commercial proliferation used for one's own benefit. I'm asking you to just stop and think about what you're doing.

Let me outline some of the issues I saw and how they might be concluded as copyright infringement:

What we saw were people purchasing items such as Hello Kitty lunch boxes, removing the tops and bottoms to attach to another structure and transforming it into an art box or purse. That's a huge no-no in the world of copyright & licensing.

Another example is when folks purchase brand license plates, such as UNC or Miami Dolphins, and affix them as a roof on a bird house. Again, huge mistake when making items for resale. Unless you've used materials from a demolished house, let's say, tin from the roof and reappropriate it, you might think twice.

Also, one cannot use a logo (i.e. Coca Cola) when carving into baseball bats as decorative accessories.

Another example is when a musician decides to recompose Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds for Bluegrass, he needs to pay a fee to the original artist; in this case, it would be the Beatles.

One needs to gain permission from those brands in order to complete such a project for resale. In many cases, seeking out permission and the funds to purchase an exclusive license will become overwhelmingly cost prohibative to you as an individual.

What can happen if permission is not sought out? Initially, you'll most likely receive a 'cease and desist' letter from the licensor and an invitation to pay back profits as well as pay other penalties such as punitive damages, fines and attorney fees.

So, you might ask yourself, "Just how much is this worth to me?"

For more info on gaining appropriate permissions, see
Getting Permission: How to License and Clear Copyrighted Materials Online and Off

Art Copyright Coalition (ACC)
Learn how copyright images become infringements.