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Ocasio-Cortez Comic
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102 posts in this topic

4 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

There was a cease and desist last year over the Image title Dead Rabbit.

Was dead rabbit a politician?

was that book selling for close to a grand?

was DC involved?

was dead rabbit promoting diversity & equallity?

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3 hours ago, Aweandlorder said:

Here's the day you've all been waiting for: ACTUAL politics affecting our hobby

8 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

There was a cease and desist last year over the Image title Dead Rabbit.

1 minute ago, Aweandlorder said:

Was dead rabbit a politician?

was that book selling for close to a grand?

was DC involved?

was dead rabbit promoting diversity & equallity?

The "politics" are filing a cease & desist.

 

 

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I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like Devil's Due can argue Fair Use.

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/#the_transformative_factor_the_purpose_and_character_of_your_use

Is it a copyright violation to publish a picture of someone dressed in a Wonder Woman Halloween costume?
147045939_ScreenShot2019-05-22at12_01_30PM.png.6eb59c2630aa0e35692f81b9fa635155.png

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12 minutes ago, adampasz said:

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like Devil's Due can argue Fair Use.

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/#the_transformative_factor_the_purpose_and_character_of_your_use

Is it a copyright violation to publish a picture of someone dressed in a Wonder Woman Halloween costume?
147045939_ScreenShot2019-05-22at12_01_30PM.png.6eb59c2630aa0e35692f81b9fa635155.png

No, because Rubie's is licensed by DC, Marvel, etc.  https://www.rubies.com/licensed-themes.html?view=all

 

Edited by valiantman
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12 minutes ago, valiantman said:
22 minutes ago, adampasz said:

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like Devil's Due can argue Fair Use.

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/#the_transformative_factor_the_purpose_and_character_of_your_use

Is it a copyright violation to publish a picture of someone dressed in a Wonder Woman Halloween costume?
147045939_ScreenShot2019-05-22at12_01_30PM.png.6eb59c2630aa0e35692f81b9fa635155.png

No, because Rubie's is licensed by DC, Marvel, etc.  https://www.rubies.com/licensed-themes.html?view=all

This is still fair use, but a published picture of someone dressed in the costume has nothing to do with the licensing to Rubie's.

The licensing only comes into play if there was no agreement in place, but that would be an argument between DC and Rubie's, not between DC and the photo publisher or DC and the costume wearer.

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10 minutes ago, masterlogan2000 said:

This is still fair use, but a published picture of someone dressed in the costume has nothing to do with the licensing to Rubie's.

The licensing only comes into play if there was no agreement in place, but that would be an argument between DC and Rubie's, not between DC and the photo publisher or DC and the costume wearer.

Publishing a picture accompanying an editorial would be fine, but using the visual to sell merchandise would be a trademark violation.

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5 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

Publishing a picture accompanying an editorial would be fine, but using the visual to sell merchandise would be a trademark violation.

Correct.  You have a case of trademark violation if the visual used to sell the merchandise is unrelated to the merchandise itself.

Though technically still a trademark violation, the bigger issue in this example would be the sale of the merchandise itself if it were unlicensed.  This charge would likely trump the trademark violation charge of showing a visual of the unlicensed merchandise that was actually being sold. :foryou:

 

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28 minutes ago, masterlogan2000 said:

Correct.  You have a case of trademark violation if the visual used to sell the merchandise is unrelated to the merchandise itself.

Though technically still a trademark violation, the bigger issue in this example would be the sale of the merchandise itself if it were unlicensed.  This charge would likely trump the trademark violation charge of showing a visual of the unlicensed merchandise that was actually being sold. :foryou:

 

No, you have a trademark violation if you're trying to sell your own merchandise using the IP (in this case, the Wonder Woman outfit) that another entity owns. The relation of the visual to the merchandise isn't important. It's whether you have the right to use the visual. The only question here would be whether the way they used it constitutes fair use.

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image.thumb.png.1302c6b0d2ed93cf6c868438c1a88073.png
 

Above is the cover of Grimm Tales of Terror #5.  (In case anyone is interested, this is the WW Philly variant by Ale Garza, limited to 350 copies.)

I'm just not sure what the difference is here.  Did DC go after Zenescope and attempt to force them to pulp all these copies?  What about all the artist that sell prints featuring Wonder Woman (or any DC character for that matter)?  It'd be nice to have some consistency, but it seems there's a bit of a double standard here.

Assuming DC is doing this to distance themselves and their characters from the political landscape, it's ironic that they've thrust themselves into the forefront of this whole argument.

Similarly, this is probably the BEST thing that could have happened to Devil's Due.  This comic is one of the hottest books out there right now, all because DC was trying to bully them around.

DC probably should have just left this alone or at least been smarter about how they handled it.  Then again, maybe all this promotion was the plan all along.

 

 

 

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50 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

Publishing a picture accompanying an editorial would be fine, but using the visual to sell merchandise would be a trademark violation.

6 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

No, you have a trademark violation if you're trying to sell your own merchandise using the IP (in this case, the Wonder Woman outfit) that another entity owns. The relation of the visual to the merchandise isn't important. It's whether you have the right to use the visual. The only question here would be whether the way they used it constitutes fair use. 

Your initial statement implied that "using the visual" would be the trademark violation.  I was simply pointing out that this does technically constitute a violation, but that the sale of the merchandise itself was the more egregious violation.

Regardless, I think we're on the same page here.

 

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I not asking about the merchandising. 

What if someone dresses up in the costume, takes a picture, and publishes a comic with the pic on the cover. Nowhere does the comic claim to be an actual Wonder Woman comic.  Can they do this without DCs permission?

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2 minutes ago, adampasz said:

I not asking about the merchandising. 

What if someone dresses up in the costume, takes a picture, and publishes a comic with the pic on the cover. Nowhere does the comic claim to be an actual Wonder Woman comic.  Can they do this without DCs permission?

There are snippets of information here that can help us arrive at the answer, which is... it's not so black and white.

The comic can still be protected under fair use, but it depends on the actual use and focus of the photo in question.  For instance, is the character dressed up, but shown in the background?  Or, is the Wonder Woman the prominent figure on display on the cover?  Is this an homage of sorts?  Satire, perhaps?  Or, is this a blatant attempt to use the Wonder Woman IP to sell more of your hypothetical comic?  These are a small sampling of the factors that the lawyers can argue in court.

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54 minutes ago, masterlogan2000 said:

There are snippets of information here that can help us arrive at the answer, which is... it's not so black and white.

The comic can still be protected under fair use, but it depends on the actual use and focus of the photo in question.  For instance, is the character dressed up, but shown in the background?  Or, is the Wonder Woman the prominent figure on display on the cover?  Is this an homage of sorts?  Satire, perhaps?  Or, is this a blatant attempt to use the Wonder Woman IP to sell more of your hypothetical comic?  These are a small sampling of the factors that the lawyers can argue in court.

It seems to me, given the comic’s content, that a defence based on satire would be pretty easy to argue.

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24 minutes ago, Brock said:

It seems to me, given the comic’s content, that a defence based on satire would be pretty easy to argue.

My comments were in reference to @adampasz's question on a hypothetical situation.  However, I agree with you that for the AOC comic, there is strong evidence to support fair use.

If anything, DC's actions just put this book on the map.

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