satire art and copyright?

[fludunlimited]

I know that as a artist I can paint micky mouse doing all kinds of sick things and would be protected ba the First Amendment
but what if I wher to make a knife with micky
or zelda or some other copyrighted icon on it as a serious tribute is that covered by Section 107 of the Copyright Act or are we risking a law suite?

 

[Whoever Wherever]

I think that you would have a hard time proving that your use was a artistic satire and not a cw infirigment to add value, real or percieved. Disney goes after people who are clearly doing satire all the time and win because they have the money to keep it in court till the smaller company is bankrupt. Same goes for Star Wars. By law a satire drawing of a copywrited character must be changed something like 9% (not shure if thats the actual figure) to avoid confusion. But they can still serve you with a cease and dissist. At that point if you stop manufacture they will not sue. If you do not they will wether you have the legal standing or not. Just my experience from making t-shirts for a clothing company. Best to get someone with an actual legal background to chime in.
Dustin

 

[sunshadow]

if it is a product using Mickey, you will get sued.
if you were using mickey in a newspaper cartoon to mock Disney, you might be alright, but using mickey on a product without paying licensing fees to Disney (and all of the corporate levels of approval to make sure that you are using mickey in a way that fits in with the corporate image of how they want mickey perceived) is a great way to end up bankrupt.

I used to be a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, we dealt a lot with trademark and copyright issues. Disney Incorporated is the major force behind tightening up C&T laws, you may or may not have noticed that every time Steamboat Willie (the original cartoon with the mouse) is about to age into public domain, copyright protection gets extended far enough to protect it for another 20 or 25 years
Everyone I have heard of who had anything for sale with something resembling the mouse has gotten dramatically sued. In the media there's a saying "Dont mess with the mouse!"

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