This is something I can't seem to get an answer for - how do sites like 80s Tees get away with selling literally hundreds of shirts that feature slogans, logos, popular cartoon characters, screenshots and other things? Do they seriously pay for the rights to use every single one of those things, or is there some loophole around it? (If they do pay for the rights, then how can you even afford to start such a business from scratch?) I ask this question because I'm very interested in entering the t-shirt market. I just don't understand this very basic part of it - since I was under the impression that you'd need either written consent or a license.
ive wondered that myself.You would think that there is some kind of licenes you need to get.If you just want to advertise for shirts,CJ's has a few affiliates that sell them
Mark This is a hot issue - one I am watching. Thanks for bringing this up. If you follow the "outdoor gear" link in my signature you will find a cafepress online store that sells t shirts and other items. Those of us that are cafepress shop keepers face this same issue. Cafepress has a lot of good resources on this subject and I have to commend them for being agressive in enforcing copyrights. What other sites get away with is complex I am sure. I wonder if sometimes a business just takes risks and waits for trouble? Or maybe there is some other situation as you mentioned. I know I did a lot of digging and have not found much at all that is freely useable. Blue Mouse brought up a good point and that's often our only recourse.....create an original design.
The problem with creating an original design is that it's still based on/representing a trademarked entity...so, if I drew a picture of Mickey Mouse using my own drawing style and put it on a T-shirt for sale on the internet, I'd expect to be in court not to long afterwards Similarly, if you made a shirt with a play on the Ghostbusters logo and put "who you gonna call?" under it - there is no way that can be legal. I asked this question twice on lawguru.com (I've asked MANY questions there) and it's the only one that never gets a response.
Mark Everything I have read agrees with what you said, not only can you not copy mickey mouse or even phrases like Nike's "Just do it" but you cannot legally create your own designs that mimic those icons, phrases or other protected visual references. Like I mentioned before, most of the information I found was in the cafepress help area.
Hi again, Cafepress's knowledgebase had this article in it: Amazing...so, I guess sites like 80s tees are actually getting the rights from dozens of studios and networks - the guy must have been born into a multimillionaire family or something to afford that...!