Fan Art Copyright Law
A professional artist may consider it insulting to have their art referred to as fan art i mean no offense copyright law does not distinguish the work or professionals from amateurs and for the purpose of this blog.
Fan art copyright law. The right to make derivative works is exclusive to the author and you need their permission to make creations like this. Fan art is a double edged sword for owners of popular characters. Since i ve never fully educated myself on that either i took some time to actually read through relevant us copyright law and thought i might share what i learned with you guys so you can be informed as well.
This law allows artists to build on existing works in creative and innovative ways. Fair use is part of the copyright laws that acknowledges the fact that many works are inspired by past art. The fair use doctrine takes into consideration whether the work was created for a nonprofit purpose and some courts place the most weight on the fourth factor the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
It s bad because every instance of fan art is a copyright infringement. If you have ever created or enjoyed fan art whether you are an artist or simply an enthusiast please take a few minutes to read this. If you are making money from fan art whether you are selling it or otherwise benefiting financially this is generally illegal unless you have permission from the copyright owner of course.
Happy enthusiastic fans spend money on games and merchandise. Even if you are not making money if the fan art interferes with the ability of whoever owns that work copyright owner to make money off the work this is also a problem. So the law has addressed some aspects of fan art notably critical parody and transformative work which however requires case by case analysis for determination but not the most common forms of fan art.
The basic law is that whoever holds the copyright to a certain thing has the sole right to make and sell derivative works including sequels based on the original concept even characters in a book or plot elements can have copyright protection. Whether it is fan fiction for a popular fantasy series or fan art of a popular movie these creations almost instantly walk into a copyright mess that can be enough to make even the boldest attorney cringe. Those that pay direct homage to the very characters and storylines created by the copyright holders.
What can you legally do when it comes to printing fan art. Very few copyright issues are as divisive or as headache inducing as fan creations. Fan art is a drawing based on a character costume or location that is made without permission by the original creator.
Fan fiction and fan art can be derivative works but they also may be protected by fair use. Fan art is technically copyright infringement.
