Disney Copyright laws and selling things on craft boards

[JESW]

Just wondering if anyone knows what Disney's laws are on people selling items with Disney characters on them.

There are lots of local "yard sale" type boards on FB now where people can sell things locally. Many of them are yard sale type items but there are other boards with craft items. On a local board there is a woman selling items with Frozen characters on them and she says she can make them with other Disney characters also. The items look like they are made with stickers bought from a craft store. Cute and many people are asking about them. I made some comment about being careful about selling items with Disney characters on them and my comment was deleted. No big deal to me and I am not going to say anything more in the group nor am I going to report them to Disney. But I am curious what Disney does about all these small "businesses" re-selling items with Disney characters on them. On another board I was reading some posts but it was from 2008 and they said that people troll the internet looking for such people and Disney shuts them down. Any truth to that? With such sites now as ETSY there must be many people thinking they can make a quick buck selling Disney items, especially Frozen items with its popularity right now.

 

[bettymae1121]

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that if Disney produces, lets say Frozen themed fabric and sells it at Michael's, and you turn around and use that fabric to make PJ's, you can then sell them and you are not in violation of copyright. But if you hand paint a Disney character on a white bedroom lamp, then you ARE in violation of copyright.

If the person you mentioned in your OP bought Frozen stickers and used those stickers to decorate an item, then sold the item, she's fine as Disney is the one that produced the stickers. If she MADE the stickers on her own, then she could be in trouble.

 

[lymaniii]

On a practical level, I think that Disney has the technical right to ask for cease and desist on anything made and sold with Disney characters in which licensing fees weren't paid (with the possible exception of stuff pre-bought from Disney as in the above comment), but that they don't usually do this. Fan art and fan crafts perpetuate excitement and interest and they are ubiquitous. If you make something with Disney characters for a living and do any real amount of volume, that's when you are more likely to get in trouble. There's what's legal, what's illegal but tolerated, and what's not tolerated.

 

[NotUrsula]

Just to clarify something:: this is not a question of copyright. It is a question of TRADEMARK infringement; which is a totally different topic.

 

[kwelch10377]

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that if Disney produces, lets say Frozen themed fabric and sells it at Michael's, and you turn around and use that fabric to make PJ's, you can then sell them and you are not in violation of copyright. But if you hand paint a Disney character on a white bedroom lamp, then you ARE in violation of copyright.

If the person you mentioned in your OP bought Frozen stickers and used those stickers to decorate an item, then sold the item, she's fine as Disney is the one that produced the stickers. If she MADE the stickers on her own, then she could be in trouble.

That is not correct, things like Disney fabric and such are for personal use only (it is typically stated on the edge of the fabric or somewhere on the packaging) and you cannot use them to make something and turn around and sell them. In order to be able to resell anything like that you have to have a license from Disney to resell.

I do sell on Etsy and participate in their forums and I do know that they do "sweeps" every once and awhile and have shops shut down for selling copyrighted stuff. There is so much copyrighted stuff on Etsy and they don't police it, it is up to the copyright owner to do so and then report it to Etsy.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Oops, posted in the wrong thread!

 

[bcla]

Just to clarify something:: this is not a question of copyright. It is a question of TRADEMARK infringement; which is a totally different topic.

The characters may be trademarked, but the individual patterns can be copyrighted. I own several Aloha shirts from the big names (Kahala, Tori Richard, Reyn Spooner) and they typically state on the label that the print pattern is copyrighted.

Something like a Disney character print is licensed and probably done with the specific pattern designed by a Disney artist. So in that case Disney holds the copyright to the pattern that's no different than a movie copyright. Now a company that did something like include a trademarked character on a fabric print could be liable for trademark infringement, but to make an item out of a legally licensed copyrighted print would be considered copyright infringement - notably the use of the raw material outside of the terms for which it has been licensed for sale.

http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/using-tradmarked-fabric-for-my-own-handcrafted-ite-449045.html

Forget trademark law -- it is wholly irrelevant to the situation you describe. Particular fabric designs created by the Real Tree folks are branded with a name that serves as a trademark but you're not using that name when you sell your products made from that fabric. So trademark law is irrelevant.

The relevant law is copyright. The fabric designs are each protected by their own copyright. The rule is that you can make and use anyone else's copyright-protected fabric design to make whatever you want but you cannot "distribute" [in copyright law lingo] any products that you make from that fabric unless you're granted a license to do so from the owner of the copyright in the fabric design.

It's not much different than the licensing terms for home video, which are typically only allowed for home viewing. The underlying video materials are copyrighted.

 

[lizabu]

When you buy licensed fabric it will typically have a message printed on the selvage telling you it's for personal use only. I used to sell crafts online and every few months you would hear about people receiving cease and desist letters from lawyers. I haven't heard of anyone actually being sued but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

[Coonhound]

A daycare near us got a cease and desist for painting characters on their windows

 

[barkley]

Charles M. Schultz when he was alive (and now his estate) was well known in Northern California for enforcing his copyrights and trademarks. step one was to send a cease and desist letter, step two was to take legal action that cost a chunk of change most people/businesses couldn't afford just to respond to the suit.

 

[VONDAKAY GLUCK]

So if I made hand crafted wooden toy chests and hand painted disney characters on them I could not sell them legally?

 

[DVCdisneyfam]

A daycare near us got a cease and desist for painting characters on their windows

Wow. they were just decorating not selling. wonder if people know this as I have seen many Disney paintings on business walls & windows.

 

[VONDAKAY GLUCK]

Wow. I made one for a friends grandson, personalized it with names and dates and loved the way it came out. I did it as a gift but thought, wow i could do this on weekends and make some extra money. I guess I have to keep my day job. Glad i started checking into it first though.

 

[MamaBelle4]

So if I made hand crafted wooden toy chests and hand painted disney characters on them I could not sell them legally?

Correct. It is Disney's intellectual property. You can make it for personal use, as a gift or to donate to charity.

 

[mmouse37]

Thread from 2014

 

[GreatLakes]

There is a difference between creating the character, like painting it from scratch, and using a licenses item like a sticker to transform something like placing a Frozen sticker on a lamp. I also suspect selling it on Etsy as a commercial item and selling the one your kid is done with. I'm sure there is a lot of minutia to it and it needs to be run past an IP lawyer if anyone really cares.

The bottom line is if Disney is made aware of it and it does fall on the wrong side of the IP law they will send a cease and desist. As long as the person stops it likely won't go any further unless they were some large enterprise.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Thread from 2014

I saw that, but figured I'd respond to the poster anyway.