I was going to wait to mention anything about the shirts until I had something positive to post but as there have been questions I felt I should bring you all up to date now.
When I had originally spoke with the company about making us shirts, I explained a little bit about who we were. I gave them links to the DISboards web site and our thread. I wanted them to see who we were and get your input.They were incurring the cost of having an artist work on design with no promise, other then my assurance we were serious about wanting the shirts.
In response to concern over using Disney characters in our design I explained: (quote from an e-mail)
"Anecdotal information seems to indicate that if you ask Disney or pirate their products for gain, or the use of the designs are brought to their attention, they do pursue the issue. However, our past experience has been that Disney seems to turn a blind eye to the use of their characters and designs by groups on the ship. There are a number of people who make decorations for use on the doors on the ship. They use the Disney characters on their products and have been selling them on EBay for a number of years. Every cruise literally hundreds of the doors on the ship are plastered with magnets and pictures that are either hand made or the cruisers had had made, using the Disney figures. Groups have tee shirts made with the name of the cruise and Disney characters. The DISboards postings are covered with homemade graphics using the Disney forms."
Based on this exchange we all proceeded. I sent some graphics and they sent back mockups of the pink shirts and black and purple shirts with Lilo & Stich and cruise text. I then sent a number of the concept designs I had posted here - the top three we had voted on, but with updates based on feedback, all with Disney characters. They gave me positive feedback concerning the concept designs and we were working on the technical issues of using them. They had their artist working on mocking up three new designs for us to look at.
Early last Wednesday morning I got a call from Becky. This was the morning after the heated but resolved exchange on our site. She explained they felt they could not use the Disney characters in a shirt design. She expressed concern that if someone bought the shirts, not just for their personal use, but sold them to the public outside our group, Disney might take action. (perhaps in jest, this had been mentioned on our site). She also mentioned if someone with a 'vigilante complex' or someone who had an issue with our group contacted Disney about the shirts we could be in trouble. There is no way I could assure her this would never happen.
So, the designs are out. I promised to try to come up with something that pleases everyone - don't know if that is possible, but I have been trying to come up with something. I have gotten written approval from Jordak and Milliepie that I can use their design concepts, without Disney characters, for shirts we would have made "for our personal use". I have sent these authorizations to Becky. So since last week I've been trying to develop something. My plan is to run everything by Becky before posting the one I hope might meet approval. If/when I get the ok, I'll see what you all think.
Sorry my news isn't any better. Oh, before I forget, before all this hit the fan, I had been told the material is 56 inches wide.
Val