Quote:
Originally Posted by galactus
They're not making money by using those images as avatars, nor keeping their respective copyright holders from making money by them doing so. You're comparing apples to oranges.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullseye
There is no comparison and this whole statement is ridiculous.
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Hardly ridiculous and I think I'm fairly consistent in this comparison of apples to apples. Following the the strict letter of the law copyrighted materials belong to the owner and may not be used without permission whether or not money is involved.
The question boils down to whether it is worth a company's resources and time to pursue all the violations of their material and in most cases it is not worth the effort to sue everyone caught using their material without permission. Only the most flagrant violators will get a letter saying desist. Here are a few examples of what I'm takling about
:
1.) There was a case where a Disney fan created a bunch of Disney gif's and avatars for people to download for free and he got a letter from Disney saying remove them and desist from this.
2.) Randy Bowen sculpted The Odin statue to sell as his own creation but it was so close to the Marvel version of Odin that he had to get permission.
Technically most of us who are using Marvel, DC, and any other company's characters without permission are legally violating the law (yes even my beloved Destroyer avatar
). Since there are so many people doing it most of us will never get a letter demanding us to desist. Only those who are making money from this without permission are getting letters. I agree that it is silly to pursue everyone who does it but you can be sued. Names do not fall into this category so you can legally call yourself Mickey Mouse but you can't use his image.
