DSF

Hi, I have a question about stickers / tshirts designs and licences..
I see alot of the sticker companies on ebay at shows etc have images like "tinkerbell" for example - for this sort of sticker would/should you be paying a licence?
Any information greatly appreciated

If you are going to sell trademarked images then yes you will need a licence or pay royalties otherwise you can find all your stock being confiscated and disposed off plus laywers jumping all over you for damages. Can be very expensive.

Ok.. What about general slogans? Do people make these copyrighted so they can't be used? Is there a newbie guide to all this? Thanks

Depends what you mean by general slogans. Something like "Happy Birthday" isn't copyrighted but "I'm lovin it" is.

How would i find out if things are copyrighted?
For example -- when i've been roaming the web researching bits n bobs i've come across a website with car stickers they have this
"All original designs, copyright (c) 2008 VDUBSHOP / Blue B Graphics."

but then they have generic stickers ie.. hibiscus and daisies ..
but also slogans like "sex, dubs n rock n roll" "home is where you park it" etc

You go to another "vw" sticker site and you'll see exactly the same slogan but maybe different graphics?!
so is it the graphics they've copyrighted or the slogan??

If someone takes a photo of an object they they own the copyright to that photo, but someone else can take another photo and not infringe the copyright. This is a bit of a minefield, but the essence is 'don't take anything from anyone elses website, photos etc without their permission'. To find out if a phrase is copyrighted/ trademarked then you would need to contact the relevant authorities (best to Google for this).

Copyright is an immensely difficult area to give definitive answers on. Obviously direct 'lifts' of other folks artwork is a major no no, creation of similar items is a little more relaxed so long as you don't create an item that can be mistaken for something too similar. i.e. a green 'Bort' Simpson tee. Creating your own designs from scratch is by far the safest route to take.

Attempting to make a claim for copyright on slogans would be virtually impossible to prove in court, providing it was contructed of regular words, rather than custom 'slang words'. Personally I wouldn't go for slogan tees as every 'start up' tee business devoid of ideas will just trawl the net and instantly lift all your ideas. Just try proving conclusively to a civil court judge that you can definitively prove one hundred percent that the phrase never existed in the English language until you strung a few words together and put them on a tee.

One thing on eBay that amuses me at the moment, is a seller trying to claim copyright on 'evolution tees' and all their variants. Those have been around since the '70's and are sold by dozens of traders on there............ lol

VW is the a company i would not mess with, they are very very hot on what they allow people to get away with even the VW clubs have problems with merchandise

oh i'm glad i'm not a lawyer i've spent 2hours reading about copyright laws and problems people have had. I think i'll be insulted if noone runs off with my designs now
Thanks for the advice

how do people get away with things like this?
http://www.sumosam.co.uk/spam-in-a-tshirt-7013-0.html
does this guys bit of waffle cover him legally