Can I Draw Fan Art And Sell It

Is selling fan fine art illegal?

Are fan fine art commissions of copyright characters illegal? The answer is, if yous are creating fan art whether for profit or non, any copyrighted character or use of trademark in a description or title without prior written consent from the copyright possessor, and so selling fan art is illegal but making fan art is non illegal.

Confused? And so yous can thank copyright law.

Keep reading to make sure you do not risk getting sued for millions.

In art and law there are many means i can translate the meaning and take their chances if they are ever pursued by the copyright owner for illegal fan art.

Keep reading if you lot demand a deeper understanding of what is fan art, how to become permission to sell fan art, why is selling fan fine art illegal and the like.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I have never skillful police force and this opinion piece is not to exist considered legal advice. If you require professional person legal advice please contact a registered legal practitioner in your city or state who specializes in copyright law.

My first fan art commission as an artist was equally an 8 twelvemonth quondam. My classmates had paid me in chocolate to draw Marine Boy. An early on anime Japanese cartoon from the 1960's, Marine male child was about a lilliputian male child who could swim underwater. The drawing had a revival in the eighty's when I was a kid.

Little did I know, I could have been sued by the copyright owners. Luckily I was just vi and nobody apart from a few happy classmates knew I did the drawings.

Never did I ask myself "is information technology legal to sell fan art""?

Pssst.. simply speedily, if all you want to know is how to get permission to sell fan art and so read my other post that goes into this topic in more particular – How To Become Permission to Sell Fan Art.

Otherwise, read on!

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This link Fan Art Ideas Hacks with crawly examples from A to Z will take you to another article where I describe in detail how I find unique fan fine art ideas.

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What is Fan Art?

Fan art is any artwork on any medium (digital and physical products) that features characters or scenery not originally invented or created past the artist selling the artwork.

This can be art, novels, short stories, trade featuring well known comic book characters. Fifty-fifty game, pic and cartoon characters in new surroundings or even a consummate copy of a known image reworked by the artist.

Fan Fine art Commissions take been effectually since way before Betty Boop appeared on the sides of World War two Bomber aircraft and then why the concern now?

What are Commissions?

In simple terms, commissions are when someone similar a collector, fine art fan, someone wanting to give someone a gift of art, will seek an artist out and pay them to specifically create a work of art for them based on their specification.

The artist and buyer usually negotiate the price and terms such every bit what art work will be created. Deputed fine art is typically a 1-off piece and not available for re-sale unless the artist keeps the image rights for prints.

In the example of fan art, a buyer may engage an artist to create a unique piece of work of art based on a popular grapheme or scene from a movie, cartoon, popular item, cars etc.

One example would be when I would receive commissions for musculus cars from popular models and brands.

One day I received a notice requesting that I take downward my drawings for sale of all my Chevy Camaro's from the 1960'south.

I idea these would never be a problem, near of the cars I was drawing were from the 1960's and 1970'southward and were function of popular culture.

Chevrolet and GM did not make this request directly, they had hired an agency to rails down anything for sale online that matched certain keywords.

If they are not licensed then they demand a accept-downwards for alienation of copyright or face legal action.

I did not have this problem with other GM brands such as Pontiac, Corvette or Holden nor did I have this problem with Ford.

Why Is Selling Fan Art illegal?

The master issue with selling fan fine art commissions is non but that they are illegal, it is that the creation of fan art can hurt the sales of officially sanctioned and licensed merchandise.

The illegal part is not paying royalties or asking permission.

Some fine art copyright owners permit a little room to move for fans to create fine art without enervating annihilation.

When a copyright paradigm or trademark are used in a fashion non originally intended then this becomes an issue.

This could be swapping out words in a trademark with an offensive word just keeping the same design or portraying a wholesome cartoon character in a non so wholesome manner.

Some sites that let you upload fine art for sale such as Redbubble via their Fan Fine art Partner Program now have an agreement with a certain number of copyright holders to pay a royalty for fan art on behalf of the artist whenever a sale is made.

For more info visit redbubble.com/partner-program

The Legalities of Art and Fan Fine art

Art falls into one, possibly two of the categories of intellectual holding. Art tin fall into Copyright equally well every bit Trademarks. The other ii categories which fine art will typically non fall into are Trade Secrets and Patents.

Copyright

According to Wiki which has drawn on chief sources of information: "The copyright law of the United States is intended to encourage the creation of art and culture by rewarding authors and artists with a set of exclusive rights. Copyright law grants authors and artists the exclusive right to brand and sell copies of their works, the right to create derivative works, and the right to perform or display their works publicly. These sectional rights are subject to a time limit, and mostly elapse 70 years after the author's death. In the United States, any music composed before January 1, 1924, is generally considered public domain."

So while an artist is alive or their estate is managing the rights upwards to 70 years later their death, you take many limits regarding the utilise of creating fan art. This lxx year period can as well exist extended, have the Disney corporation as an example. If the law was strictly black and white then will anyone exist able to copy Mickey Mouse after the twelvemonth 2024? Nope!

They volition but be able to copy the outset version of Mickey Mouse but not the after versions!

According to this arstechnica.com commodity; "The expiration of copyrights for characters like Mickey Mouse and Batman will heighten tricky new legal questions. After 2024, Disney won't accept any copyright protection for Mickey's original incarnation. Merely Disney volition still own copyrights for afterwards incarnations of the character—and it volition likewise own Mickey-related trademarks." Which leads usa to…

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Understanding Copyright Law, Seventh Edition (Agreement Series)
Copyright Police force, Essential Cases and Materials (American Casebook Serial)
Copyright (Examples & Explanations)

Trademarks

One time again, according to Wiki which has drawn on primary legal sources of data: "A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual holding consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others, although trademarks used to identify services are commonly chosen service marks.The trademark owner tin be an individual, business organization, or whatever legal entity. A trademark may exist located on a bundle, a label, a voucher, or on the product itself. For the sake of corporate identity, trademarks are often displayed on company buildings. It is legally recognized as a type of intellectual property."

What does trademark have to do with fine art? Well many people will accidently infringe on a trademark when they use trademarked words or logos in their description or in their art itself. Whatever logo like a Coke logo used in art is a no-no. The same applies if you use an X-Men logo on the chest of a character you lot drew.

Using Trademarks In Your Art Titles

Equally mentioned earlier, one of the areas where I was targeted was by a bot crawling the cyberspace for specific keywords. The visitor using the crawler had come up across my very specific keywords and without checking my fine art piece of work, sent a need to take downwardly my art.

If I had not been so specific about what make and model machine it was, I am certain I would have not received the take down find. At the same time I am sure near buyers would never have come across my drawings without the proper primal words.

While you need to be specific with your keywords in guild to be found, be careful you are not stepping on trademarks when you register a domain or list an item for auction. The use of a trademark in your URL could fifty-fifty allow the trademark possessor to take over your domain!

Off-white Utilise – Is fan art fair employ?

There is a doctrine in the USA and a version of this exists in most parts of the world to protect artists called Fair Employ.

"Fair employ is a doctrine in the law of the United States that permits express use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder."

If you are just creating Fan Art and non selling Fan Art and so you aren't profiting from the auction of copyright images, because y'all are doing them solely to promote your skills and building a portfolio and then your work would fall under Fair Employ.

It's listed below in the official government website covering copyright.
https://world wide web.copyright.gov/off-white-use/more-info.html

Additionally, at that place is a code of practise being put together specifically for artists and is accessible hither https://www.collegeart.org/programs/caa-fair-use/best-practices.

Here is an extract:

..the right to make fair use of copyrighted materials is a key tool for the visual arts community, although its members may not e'er choose to take advantage of it. They may even so seek copyright permissions, for instance, to maintain relationships, to reward someone deemed deserving, or to obtain admission to material needed for their purposes. But, in certain other cases, including those described in the Lawmaking, they may choose instead to employ off-white employ of copyrighted material in order to accomplish their professional goals.

Where the law does sort of side with the creative person is when the artists uses copyright material for inspiration or admiration and as long as it is non an exact copy, that is, the creative person has made a substantial try to draw inspiration from the artwork and not brand a breathy copy then all should exist well. The problem is, when you lot practice this with fan art, the original art you are wanting to copy will blank very niggling resemblance to the original.

Many members of the visual arts community utilise off-white use in their professional practices and many do and so regularly. For case, scholars and their editors use fair use in the context of analytic writing (for example, in using reproductions of copyrighted artworks and quotations). Teachers rely on it—forth with other copyright exceptions—to show images of works existence discussed during course sessions, and, fifty-fifty more heavily, to provide relevant images for educatee utilize outside form. In the museum context, fair utilize may exist employed in exhibitions and publications, and in a range of digital and educational projects. Artists may apply fair use to build on preexisting works, appoint with contemporary civilization, or provide artistic, political, or social commentary. And the entire visual arts community benefits from fair apply when information technology enables enhanced access to archival materials. These are only some of the most common ways in which fair use is central to visual arts practice.
https://www.collegeart.org/programs/caa-fair-use/best-practices

So where does that leave you or me? Should y'all accept fan art commissions? I'll reply that below.

Should I Risk Accepting Fan Art Commissions?

Personally, I still have fan fine art commissions. And I do and so knowing in that location are some risks if I manage to take hold of the attention of the copyright holders.

In most cases I will be told to take downward my fine art or stop selling information technology. I commonly do not charge plenty to exist a financial threat to the copyright holder and unless i'g making a substantial income from information technology I doubt I will ever end up in courtroom. That said, I steer away from litigious copyright owners' works.

I am not advocating that you lot interruption the law and I am in no way going to be responsible if you become sued. I gave my personal opinion and that is my take chances to take and not yours. Do keep in listen that when I receive a request to take downward an art piece of work from a copyright owner, I do and so right away.

(Even if yous live outside of the Us, if the copyright holder is based in the U.s. or has an international trademark and so they can still pursue y'all for loss of income or serve a take down.)

What is the TEACH Act?

Under the TEACH Human activity:

• Instructors or teachers may use a wider range of works in distance learning environments.

• Students may participate in altitude learning sessions from near any location.

• Participants enjoy greater latitude when information technology comes to storing, copying and digitizing materials.
https://www.copyright.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CR-Teach-Act.pdf

Comply with Requests From Copyright and Trademark Owners

Then when (not if just when) you received a notification to accept down whatever copyright or trademarked fan fine art, do non believe that you are too little to be sued or smarter than the lawyers of a mega corporation. The effort to fight the request is non worth it. Just accept it down.

How To Sell Fan Art Legally

There are a few things you lot tin can do to sell fan art legally and not autumn foul of the law.

You can utilise to the copyright owner for written permission or consent. The chances of this beingness granted to a small-scale operator is very small.
List your art for sale on a site such equally Redbubble, who already have implemented the processes to collect royalties on your behalf for specific copyright owners.
Or so what I do – I sell fan fine art in such minor numbers that I stay beneath the radar. 20 years in, nobody has come up for money.
- If you lot exercise, find out how to sell prints of your awesome work and see if making prints is worth your while

If you want to learn what to do to become permission to sell fan fine art then have a await at my other mail that goes into this topic in more detail – How To Get Permission to Sell Fan Art

Are collages legal?

Equally nearly collages involve pasting images or texts from magazine or books or fifty-fifty images from other artists, this likewise tin can fall under the watchful legal eyes of someone looking to claim theft. In this post, I go over the question – Is collage art legal?