If I did video patterns on how to make a character, does that have the potential to get me in trouble? I want to do character versions of my mini horse pattern, but I want to know how much of a risk that could be. Pretty much all of the characters I would be doing would be old characters (spirit and rain from spirit of the cimmaron is one example) and then maybe some doll characters.
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I would say that it depends on the individual companyâs policies on fan made items. Most companies are pretty chill with people making things based off of their characters as long as you donât claim them as your own characters. As for patterns, Iâm not sure, but my bet would be that as long as it is a free pattern and you arenât earning money off of their character ideas, then you should be good, but it is a pretty grey area.
This is what Google has to say about it:
Making and selling patterns for copyrighted characters is generally illegal copyright infringement, as these characters are protected intellectual property, and creating/selling derivative works (like patterns) requires permission (a license) from the rights holder. While patterns themselves (instructions) might have weaker copyright, using specific character likenesses for commercial sales infringes the original creatorâs rights, with fair use rarely applying to commercial sales, even with disclaimers. For legal safety, create patterns for original characters or use elements the character owns (like a generic âSâ or heart), not the character itself, and always get licenses for commercial use of copyrighted figures.
I see a lot of patterns for copyrighted characters, so you might be okay to do it, but Iâm not encouraging you to do so. Your best bet would be to do some research on fair use and copyright laws so you are more informed on the topic, because a lot of things like this fall into a pretty grey area. After doing some research on the topic, I would check out the individual companyâs policies on the use of their characters. Many companies require a licence for commercial use of their characters, but that can be a very long and tedious process that not everyone is up to going through.
I hope this helps at least somewhat (:
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I guess if it is more like, I am using my pattern, but showing how to customize it⌠idk. I usually just totally avoid copywrited characters. But I wondered about video tutorials of me crocheting a character likeness
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I think that you should check to see if the characters are in the public domain. If they are, then youâre fine, but if theyâre not, then it would be taking the risk of the video/pattern or even shop getting shut down. So Black Beauty would be in the public domain.
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So you are using a pattern of your own that can be customized to look like a character from a form of media? The issue isnât in the pattern being yours or not, itâs in the product being a copyrighted character. I did some very surface level research on the characters you originally mentioned and this is what I found:
Essentially, with no licence or permission from the company that created these characters, you cannot legally create a customization for a pattern that would have the likeness of these characters. You can however make your own pattern or customization of a pattern you created as long as you do not make it identical to the copyrighted characters. For example, if I wanted to create a pattern or customization of a pattern to make Link from Legend of Zelda, I would have to get a license or permission from the company who created this character to make this pattern public. I can always make a character who looks like Link but not identical to him, as in the name of the character is not Link, does not look exactly like Link, and does not have any of the same story elements as the character, and make that pattern public. If I made a pattern of Link that was an exact copy of the copyrighted character, I would not be able to publicly sell that pattern or product.
I hope that makes sense?
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I have heard of people hired by companies to go to craft shows, view sites online and charge people for copywrite theft. A friend of mine also was banned from Etsy for making Hello Kitty patterns, changing name and some of the likeness will not save you. Personally I would not do it. A lot of people do it but they just not have been caught yet. This may just be a rumour but my friend did really get banned from Etsy for it.
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I mean, when I think about how I might feel if people were just âborrowingâ a character I made, I wouldnât want people stealing my work.
But really my goal with my crochet videos would be more to the purpose of showing how to use the customizations of my patterns, as a good few of them have a really fun customization system meant to be able to chart out the colors. I will probably just do historical characters.
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If you find out what breed of horse, each of the horses from spirit are instead of advertising it as the character horses, you can just advertise it as their breeds (ie; if weâre talking, the series is not the movie the main girls horse is a tan mustang with a black/darkbrown mane), that should be a pretty safe bet seeing as how no one has exclusive rights to the breed of an animal as far as I know, anyone else can feel free to correct me if Iâm wrong
FYI; I have not read the previous responses before posting my assumptive theory
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Ya, I could do âbuckskin mustang" and âtovero mustang" or some such thing.
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