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T-Shirt Plagiarism

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quincy

Senior Member
If you copy someone else’s copyright-protected teeshirt design - even if the design is a word design - you potentially can be sued for copyright infringement. If the words are trademark-protected, you potentially can be sued for trademark infringement.

But facts matter - and you have provided few of those. :)

Would you care to add some additional information? Thanks.

Definition of plagiarism from Black’s Law Dictionary: The deliberate and knowing presentation of another person’s original ideas or creative expressions as one’s own.

Copyright infringement: An unauthorized use of a copyright-holder’s original and creative works that violate the exclusive rights held by the copyright holder. Exclusive rights include the right to reproduce (copy) the work, the right to create derivatives, the right to display the work, the right to perform the work, the right to authorize others to use the work.
 
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FlyingRon

Senior Member
As Q points out, plagiarism isn't necessarily illegal and things that are not plagiarized aren't necessarily legal.

Just because I properly attribute a work (and hence isn't plagiarism) doesn't mean I can make copies of it.
It's plagiarism to make shirts that say "Love your enemies, for they tell you your Faults. --FlyingRon" (Ben Franklin wrote it). It's not illegal, as Ben's work is in the public domain now.
 

quincy

Senior Member
... It's plagiarism to make shirts that say "Love your enemies, for they tell you your Faults. --FlyingRon" (Ben Franklin wrote it). It's not illegal, as Ben's work is in the public domain now.
Ben Franklin was on the whole a pretty smart fellow but, personally, I prefer to love those who pretend I’m perfect. I already know too well my faults. :)


(as a note: Ben Franklin may have borrowed the idea for his words from Antisthenes, quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosphers, 3rd century A.D., “Pay attention to your foes, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”)
 

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