Disc Dyes and Copyright Infringement

[JerBenefie]

Hi Community!
I have been dyeing discs for a couple years and sometimes get requests to stencil unoriginal art, and copyrighted material.

Would it be legal to sell a disc dyed with Darth Vader, Mario Cart characters, etc.?

Would it better and more ethical to trade for plastic with no money changing hands?

Thank you all for yoir thoughts!

 

[roggenb3]

No, its not legal. And its not less illegal to take discs instead of money.

No one is going to come after you for it though. I mean, if Gateway can mass produce illegal stuff, I think you are ok. Its all about whether you are ok with it personally.

I have made plenty of discs of copyrighted material for myself and friends and have no second thoughts about doing it.

 

[philstine]

No, its not legal. And its not less illegal to take discs instead of money.

What he said.

[/quote]No one is going to come after you for it though. I mean, if Gateway can mass produce illegal stuff, I think you are ok. [/quote]

It depends. Some copyright/trademark holders are more aggressive in identifying and pursing violations that others. It also depends on the C/T holder being aware of the infringement. If you're a small-time operator making the odd one-off and are operating under the radar, the odds of being discovered are fairly low. And even if you are caught, it's usually not worth the time or cost for a C/T holder to pursue a de minimis infringement. At most, you're more likely to receive a "cease-and-desist" letter. If, OTOH, you're churning out boatloads of infringing stuff and marketing them, though, a C/T holder may decide it's worth it to go after you.

It's likey that Gateway gets/got away with stamping C/T-ed material because the C/T holder wasn't aware of the infringement. OTOH, Disney/Marvel tends to be aggressive in searching for infringments so it's not out of the realm of possibility that DD's licensing agreement with Marvel came about as the result of Disney/Marvel spotting an unlicensed Captain America disc on ebay and making DD an offer they couldn't refuse. [Not saying that's what happened with DD: just that someting along those lines fits Disney/Marvel's MO.]

TL/DR, it's technically illegal, but if you're doing the odd fan art disc, you can probably get away with it; if it's part of your business model, you're asking for trouble.

 

[seedlings]

It would not be illegal if you drew a unique fan-art version of a copywrited character.

 

[dmoore1998]

It's not legal. For the most part folks don't care enough to come after you. The folks who WILL come after you are members of the DG community. If you start putting Innova or Discraft designs/names on discs...they're going to care a lot more than Disney cares if you put Mario on one. Same for things like Huk designs, or non-manufacturer designs that have some kind of protection...folks who have the protection and actively use it for disc golf are going to have a much harder line on it than someone not in the space.

 

[txmxer]

It would not be illegal if you drew a unique fan-art version of a copywrited character.

If you were to sell that disc, would that not be a CR violation?

If you were to mass produce the character does that alter the equation? Mass produced just meaning more than one. Like a stamped graphic.

 

[dekuscrub]

If you were to sell that disc, would that not be a CR violation?

If you were to mass produce the character does that alter the equation? Mass produced just meaning more than one. Like a stamped graphic.

Generally, fan art is copyright infringement. (It's a "derivative work." It may also be trademark infringement, but that's a separate issue.) This infringement may be excusable under the "fair use" doctrine, but it's a relatively complex and fact-specific analysis. Either way, as you see from the from the abundance of fan art online, copyrights are not always enforced.

So, whether you sell the disc or mass produce them don't make a difference for whether it's copyright infringement. It just changes the likelihood of having that copyright enforced.

 

[seedlings]

Generally, fan art is copyright infringement. (It's a "derivative work." It may also be trademark infringement, but that's a separate issue.) This infringement may be excusable under the "fair use" doctrine, but it's a relatively complex and fact-specific analysis. Either way, as you see from the from the abundance of fan art online, copyrights are not always enforced.

So, whether you sell the disc or mass produce them don't make a difference for whether it's copyright infringement. It just changes the likelihood of having that copyright enforced.

Fan art is absolutely legal IF you don't make money off of it, and if it is "inspired by' rather than a close rendition.

 

[dekuscrub]

Fan art is absolutely legal IF you don't make money off of it, and if it is "inspired by' rather than a close rendition.

These facts would definitely help an artist's fair use argument, but they are not necessarily dispositive.

Still, for disc dyers, the most relevant question is probably whether the copyright holders would take action against them (as the other commenters discussed), not whether the dyed disc technically a copyright infringement.

By the way, for anyone interested in learning more about this stuff – Stanford hosts a website with a lot of information about fair use, including an overview of the four factor test and a page on "When are you likely to get sued?" The Supreme Court is also about to decide a major fair use case, Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which could potentially shake things up.

 

[sema7082]

Big problem

There should not be such a violation, people should follow this otherwise there will be big consequences. I recently came across this topic at the university. I found information about copyright detector, used https://phdessay.com/copyright-detector/ for this. There you can find detailed information so that you do not encounter this. By the way, in this way I received information that will be useful to me and will be useful.

 

[jupiterboy]

You can drill down into the mud with this, but I deal with permissions a bit, and I'll tell you that you can rip off or copy artwork for decorating something personal, but when you start selling it for profit you have an issue.

The laws are get kinda vague, and you will probably never be in court to test them. If you are hand cutting masks, you are probably OK. If you are doing commercial foil stamping, you need to be legally good on everything including the type you license.

 

[durkmcgurk]

It's not legal. For the most part folks don't care enough to come after you. The folks who WILL come after you are members of the DG community. If you start putting Innova or Discraft designs/names on discs...they're going to care a lot more than Disney cares if you put Mario on one. Same for things like Huk designs, or non-manufacturer designs that have some kind of protection...folks who have the protection and actively use it for disc golf are going to have a much harder line on it than someone not in the space.

You're 100% correct - I don't think Disney could care less if people put Mario on a disc.

 

[notapro]

You're 100% correct - I don't think Disney could care less if people put Mario on a disc.

This isnt going to be funny in 10 years probably.

 

[txmxer]

The personal use vs profit was pretty much what I would expect.

If I stamp 1000 discs with MCU characters and sell them on eBay I'm a lot more exposed than a one or two off for personal use or even trade.

But it's still technically copyright infringement

 

[jupiterboy]

The personal use vs profit was pretty much what I would expect.

If I stamp 1000 discs with MCU characters and sell them on eBay I'm a lot more exposed than a one or two off for personal use or even trade.

But it's still technically copyright infringement

Maybe it's infringement if some kid traces something on their notebook during history class. The legal threshold gets down to percent changes, which is vague AF. But then you have other layers for recognizable characters, brands, whatever.

Even really old stuff is hard to run down and know, but for personal? Life is short…

 

[ellencarnallajya99]

There should not be such a violation, people should follow this otherwise there will be big consequences. I recently came across this topic at the university. I found information about copyright detector, used https://phdessay.com/copyright-detector/ for this. There you can find detailed information so that you do not encounter this. By the way, in this way I received information that will be useful to me and will be useful.

Are you seriously?