legal question.

I'm starting an in-world clothing line called Princess. Many of my designs are based on Disney Princess as well as video game and television heroines. My question is could this bring legal consequences?

absolutely.. copyrights hold up in SL just like any other world... you can be inspired by them... but actually copying a design would be, if I remember correctly, illegal

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: You'll need to read up on Copyright, IP , Trademark, etc laws. It's a very complex issue.

My advise: If you question it, don't do it. Esspcially with Disney. They sued a 12 yo girl for having the "Mickey Mouse" shadow on her personal web page that she and her friends were using as a "Disney Fan Site". I doubt they're fans anymore, heh.

~Jessy

thanks.

Lots of companies will look the other way or even tacitly encourage fan art and even small scale commercial stuff, but Disney can be brutal. Don't mess with them.

While I agree that Disney has the reputation of aggressively enforcing their trademarks and copyrights, I can't find any reference that either confirms or refutes the assertion about the 12 year old girl. I can find several fan sites, including one labeled 'unofficial', which use Disney art. So my inclination is to be skeptical.

In the early days of the web, most media companies were aggressive about their property. I think Paramount's protection of Star Trek was one that got a lot of attention. Over time, however, they realized the folly of this. These days, media companies in general seem to be reasonably accepting of personal use of artwork, logos, etc., so long as they're not being used to generate a profit and aren't diluting or tarnishing a trademark.

That's a key difference for the original poster, who is trying to make money, and hence more likely to get in trouble.

Thinking about it now SL is a very Disneyless world

A pink ball gown is a pink ball gown. Don't copy the style from the Disney movies or reference the name Disney in any way and there is not much they can do. The names Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty are all public domain.

Whether it's legal or not is different from whether it will bring legal consquences. What you propose definitely sounds illegal if you do not have permission from Disney and the other copyright owners.

Whether or not you will face legal consequences? People get away with copyright violations everywhere in Second Life, it's all over the place without apparent consequences. Before one faces legal consequences, the copyright holder would have to detect the violation, then somehow find the identity of the violator. I don't think those things are going to happen a lot unless Linden Labs gets serious about it, the way it did with child porn and gambling. As to the timing of when Linden Labs gets involved, that will depend on when someone finally decides to files charges against or sue Linden Labs, or at least threatens such. Now when that happens, probably a lot of residents making money from someone else's copyrighted material are going to find themselves in legal trouble.

Well there is thing called fan art i.e people do make things like roleplaying areas for Dune,etc. which is acceptable I assume.
And I have seen textures that are in buildings and list that the creator said not to be used in games and whole list of other conditions. Even seen Disney characters basically photosurced on items.
Most don't get in trouble but I wouldn't buy their products.
Imagine if you own a product or design and spent lot of time and money perfect and promote it only to see others use it and make profit. How would you feel?
Personally I would feel bad about taking money from something I didn't make.
I would feel more comfortable making some bit more different and based on my own artistic skill.
Yet I do sometimes borrow textures but its public domain and I don't sell my textures.

Short answer: MAYBE. Ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

Potential issues: If you want to use the Disney Princesses' images, that would likely be a no-no. If you want to make princess-style ballgowns, go for it. Making exact copies of the Disney dresses? Questionable, but if it is merely "inspired by" the designs, you should generally be okay. Ask your lawyer.

Disney is brutal. Here's a story that should make you very aware of how they can be:

http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp

There is so much copyright theft in SL it is unimaginable to me. Of all the sky is falling things that go on here, that is the one that I believe is going to have a major impact in the future.

You have been warned! Mwahaha

Very true Bradley.....it's a very hard thing to define though...for me anyway. I recently wrote a post regarding copyright and theft....

http://slexposed.sizzlingskillet.com/

By the way....ya gotta love Jack Handey...

Fan art isn't automatically legal. Your fan art drawing of SpiderMan that you post on a web site would be a copyright infringement- except that Marvel explicitly has a policy allowing posting of fan art, subject to a few rules. (Unless it's changed since I last looked, you can find these rules on Marvel's web site.) The key here though is that Marvel explicitly grants the permission to use their characters in fan art.

Though I would doubt it with Disney, it's possible that if you go to the Disney Corporate website or something, it may have a policy about accepted use of its characters.

If you want to do something using copyrighted material, and you are certain that the copyright holder would not mind your use, write a letter to the copyright holder in advance to confirm it.

(Don't do what my alma mater's young Republican club did in 1988. As part of their political efforts in the 1988 presidential campaign, they printed a card that looked like the "Get Out of Jail Free" card from Monopoly, with a little blurb mocking Dukakis's furlough plan in Massachusetts, and passed out this card all over campus. And even though I supported Dukakis in that election, I have to admit that the card was clever and funny, and I'm sure I still have it somewhere. Well, it wasn't long until someone sent a copy of the card to Hasbro, and Hasbro's legal team got back with a stern cease-and-desist to the school young Republican club, regarding use of its Monopoly trademarks. In a statement, the club said they were shocked at the response from Hasbro, because the CEO of Hasbro was a Republican. Well, the lesson is that they shouldn't have assumed that their use of someone else's intellectual property would be okay, they should have asked first.)

You CAN make a little mermaid, cinderella, snow white, briar rose set of dresses. Just don't copy disney's versions.

/me nods

Check this link:

http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp