Copyright Questions

[*pixie*]

I had previously bought autograph books for our DW trip on Etsy. They were handmade and the cover was decorated with Disney characters and the pages had Disney clipart on them. The seller is no longer selling them because she said she had been contacted and was told to stop. I see though that there are still homemade autograph books for sale by other sellers.

My question is, are people not allowed to sell *anything* homemade with Disney materials on it? I understand not being able to sell items with clipart on them, but if they use scrapbooking materials purchased from a store, are they able to then?

 

[tyniknate]

From what I understand you may not sell anything with the disney copywrited material on it. You may make it to give away but you may in no way make a profit from it. That's how the girls on the t-shirt board and a couple others can do it. There have been a few girls who have actually had legal notice sent to them by Disney and can no longer produce anything with a Disney image on it.

 

[moikturtle]

From what I understand you're technically not supposed to sell anything made with their materials that have their images without permission (which I imagine is difficult to get). When it comes to the Disney Cricut cartridges, I read the policy on that somewhere and I believe it's VERY limited (I think under 20 items with no modifications made at all). The same goes for licensed fabrics (from Disney and other companies), which clearly state on the edge that it is not to be used to make products for resale.

In spite of this, TONS of people continue to sell products they really shouldn't be. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the "everyone but me" mentality. In my opinion it's pretty risky given that Disney can be awful and unrelenting in their lawsuits.

 

[*pixie*]

Thanks for the responses! I figured thats the way it was, but I wasn't sure. I'm sure Disney will catch up with these people eventually.