As an artist, the biggest fear is having my originality stolen copied, or worse, stolen! If you’re anything like me you’ve googled and sought advices about this and the feedback is all over the place. Below you will get the useful jist of my findings.
tldr: (focus in this order) copyright, trademark, threaten
Disney has always been the prime example of this. I was explained this since a random 4th grade substitute teacher decided to express to all of us children the need to write the (C) symbole on everything we do.
How does copyright work:
Copyright protects:
- The specific character design. animation/film, and derivatives for 95 years.
What you can trademark & why:
Trademark protects your brand’s identity, as long as you continue to defend and commercialize it.
- The name “Mickey Mouse”
- The character image
- The silhouette
- Logos and branding
- Specific modern designs
Threaten
Since you have to put yourself out there to get any traction, the only way to get anywhere is to trust the system. Get yourself the needed copyright and trademarks and then if anyone copies/steals your stuff, send out seize and deceize letters and threaten the thieves!
Q&A
How do artists create parody content so you have room for seat-of-the-pants crossovers to build old-to-new engagement hooks?
Firstly, selling fan art is technically copyright infringement. However, for good PR and free marketing, most companies allow small-scale fan art out of goodwill. You will effectively get screwed if the owners get wind of you successfully monetizing off of their work.
Secondly, parody art is all good!
It can be considered parody if it:
- Comment on or criticize the original work
- Be transformative
- Not just copy for decoration
Key Legal Idea: “Transformative Use”
If your art changes context significantly, adds new meaning, or mocks the original
The art community is about sharing, so at the end of the day if you work with good intentions, I have faith that you can successfully grow your brand with minimal hiccups (be careful though; thieves are worse than established artists imo)
