MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Dreamstime.com => Topic started by: NYTumbleweeds on February 04, 2009, 16:40

Title: Cartoon Characters
Post by: NYTumbleweeds on February 04, 2009, 16:40

I was searching through DT last night and stumbled onto images of copyrighted cartoon characters. They're more like pages for a coloring book since they have mostly just black outlines. When I looked through the person's port I noticed lots of different characters from lots of different movies. I emailed DT and got a fast response that they'll check it out. But I'm still wondering... is that legal?? I can't imagine it is??

Title: Re: Cartoon Characters
Post by: NancyCWalker on February 08, 2009, 18:11

If the characters are trademarked then it's not legal unless you have written permission from the trademark owner. If the pages are from a coloring book then that would violate the authors copyright.

If it didn't come from you, your design, your creative process, then you can't reproduce it and sell it has microstock. If caught you could face lawsuits from the trademark/copyright holders as well as be responsible for any legal fees that the site has to pay.

Title: Re: Cartoon Characters
Post by: RT on February 08, 2009, 19:09

This is unbelievable, Dreamstime are normally so knowledgable when it comes to copyright/trademark issues. (This is sarcasm for those that don't get it)

Title: Re: Cartoon Characters
Post by: dbajurin on February 08, 2009, 20:38

Some characters are Public Domain. I think that old Tom and Jerry characters are PD and many more but to be truth 90% are copyrighted.