Creating t-shirts, zippo-style lighters, and other such merchandise.

[ChrisPR]

Washington state:

I would like some information on selling merchandise created by noneother than myself. If I were to make t-shirts and lighters with images of famous people, movie scenes, rock stars, and things of the sort, and sell them, would this be an illegal activity in which I could get in trouble for? For instance, if I were to put an image of Billy Idol or a picture of a scene from the movie Pulp Fiction on a zippo-style lighter or a t-shirt , etc. and sell them, would this be a problem?

 

[racer72]

You would be asking for a whole heep of trouble. Companies spend big bucks to protect their copyrights and a whole lot of the money is spent taking folks like you to court and suing for some big time cash. And if you can't afford the above there would be no way you could afford to pay the copyright fees.

 

[ChrisPR]

Okay, well how is it that several people are getting away with doing this and selling on e-bay?

 

[LegalBeagle]

Just because other people 'get away with it' does not make it legal. Otherwise we would all enter a presidential election and rig the voting laws to our own benefit.

 

[ChrisPR]

I understand that. Again, my question is- How do others get away with selling these items they've made on E-bay? I never said it was okay for me to do it because they are getting away with it, nor did I say that it makes this legal.

 

[LegalBeagle]

Because the time and effort to find and prosecute everyone is too much for some companies. Just like some people speed and never get caught. Others are in prison because they got caught many times..

 

[wtd]

One reason that they may "get away with it", is that they have agreements with, and pay royalties to the copyright holders of the material that they are using.

Why don't you give the copyright holder of Pulp Fiction a jingle and see how much they would want for allowing you to put a frame from their movie on your t-shirt?