Can I Legally Commission Art of a Webcomic Character
If you honey a specific drawing series, video game, anime, or movie, you may want to artistically recreate the characters yourself. This is referred to as fan art, and creating fan art is a mutual practice. However, if yous're thinking of selling this type of art, you'll need to know if information technology's even legal to sell fan art in the offset place?
It is legal to sell fan fine art if you lot get permission from the original copyright owner. Fanart does not meet the requirements of the fair use act, and you lot may get into legal trouble for making and selling fan art without permission from theowner of the intellectual property in question.
In this commodity, y'all'll acquire some of the technicalities of selling fan fine art. Showtime, I'll go over some of the legal complications that may arise every bit a result of selling fan fine art. Then, I'll show you how to go permission to create, promote and sell your fan art while staying on the right side of the constabulary.
Finally, I'll tell you about three companies that will let you to sell your fan art online 100% legally.
What Is Fan Fine art?
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Before going into the technicalities of making and selling fan art, information technology'south important to know some bones details virtually fan art.
Any fictional character that'south based on the works of someone else tin be referred to as fan art. People take created fan fine art of their favorite characters every bit far dorsum equally comics and fan fiction have existed. Some authors and artists even encourage their followers to brand and share fan art of their characters by promoting the fan art in the original work itself.
More recently, fans have started selling unofficial fan art for coin. Selling fan art can have many forms. For example, you may create an artwork based on your favorite comic volume character then sell information technology off as a separate comic, creation, or decorative piece of work of fine art. You tin can also create t-shirts with the paradigm of your favorite character, etc.
Each of these is a dissimilar way of selling fan art, and they're generally illegal. According to copyright law, just the creator of these characters has the right to apply them in this manner without permission.
Nigh people go away with selling fan-based visual fine art as long as they don't go too popular. While y'all may also get away with it for some fourth dimension, it doesn't mean you should try. There are always legal ways to do anything, and this mail will prove you the legal means to make money from your impressive fan artwork.
Is It Illegal to Sell Fan Fine art?
While it is legal to create fan art, distributing and selling it is illegal (copyright infringement) and may invoke copyright lawsuits. While nearly creators will not go after every fan fine art creator with a lawsuit, it is of import to know you're breaking the police force by selling an thought that isn't original.
While you might see a lot of people creating and selling fan art and merch based on it, that doesn't go far legal. Also, some of the people y'all've seen selling fan fine art may have permission from the trademark possessor. If you don't, you are putting yourself in legal jeopardy.
You don't even have to sell the fan art you make to invoke a lawsuit. The original art creator may take legal action if they believe that your apply of their work is illegal, and is preventing them from making more sales in whatever way. For case, if you lot give your fan art away for costless in big quantities or post information technology on social media, yous may be harming the original creator's power to brand money from their efforts.
If you'd rather stay on the right side of the law, you will want to stay away from selling and sharing the fan art you make, even if the copyright owner doesn't seem to be interested in suing people who do. Remember about information technology; the owner of the copyright can change their mind about pursuing the infringement at any time.
Receiving a Cease and Desist Letter For Selling Fan Art
It's of import to note that depending on where you alive, selling fan fine art is ordinarily not a offense. You tin be in financial jeopardy from civil lawsuits, just it'southward very unlikely that you'll ever be arrested or imprisoned for making and selling fan fine art.
Information technology is, however, quite likely that you will receive a legal Terminate and Desist letter or electronic mail from the copyright holder's attorney.
If you've already sold some copies of your fan art illegally and unknowingly, it'due south best to stop doing it in one case you lot know it'south illegal. If you continue to sell your fan art, the copyright owner may send a finish and desist alphabetic character, with guidelines outlining what they think you lot owe them for the copies y'all've already sold.
Although most companies won't be willing to pursue a copyright example with someone who isn't selling on a large scale, there are ways that they can shut downward your individual website or get you banned with the platforms your using to sell and brandish the piece of work.
How to Sell Fan Fine art Legally
Since information technology's illegal to sell characters you created to mimic the work of other creators and artists, is in that location no way to sell fan art legally?
Fortunately, there are means you can sell fan fine art legally without whatever risk of lawsuits or fines. Nonetheless, it's a long procedure, and information technology's not equally easy as information technology may seem. Here, I'll prove you the processes of selling fan art legally, but it's up to you to make sure that you've done everything you need to exercise to protect yourself from being sued.
Notation: Personally, before attempting to sell fan art, I'd recommend speaking with a qualified Copywrite attorney.
1. Sell Your Fan Art by Geting Permission from the Original Creator
This is the well-nigh tasking stride of selling fan fine art. Not only do you take to craft a compelling email that will make the copyright holder want to allow you to sell their intellectual property (IP), just you volition need to be prepared to pay a licensing fee to do and so.
Even if they are open to letting you pay a licensing fee for the rights to sell your fan-based art, the fee could be quite high depending on the popularity of the copyrighted grapheme you're creating a derivative work of. If you're not willing to pay up of $50,000 for the licensing fee, trying to get permission will seem like a futile effort.
Assuming you're willing to pay that much, most big brands already take a standard reply for fan art requests, regardless of how mouth-watering your offer is. Some won't fifty-fifty allow you pay a licensing fee; the default answer is e'er "no, we can't grant you permission at this time."
If y'all find whatsoever online resources that suggests that the original character creator doesn't accept fan art requests, you can even so try asking for permission to sell your fan art. Here are the steps required to do that.
- Do some research well-nigh the original copyright owner
Getting permission involves contacting the copyright owner to ask for it, and you tin't contact the copyright owner without knowing a thing or two most them.
Earlier penning your asking, notice out what you can about the individual or arrangement that owns the copyright for the original artwork. If it is an organization, endeavor to learn if they will exist willing to license fan art, if they charge a licensing fee, and how much licensing fee they accuse.
You should also effort to discover the best mode to contact them for these types of inquiries. For example, they may have an agent or a dedicated resource to handle copyright-related requests.
Once yous know who owns the copyright and who to contact, you lot're ready to submit your request to sell variations of their fine art legally.
- Transport a written request to the copyright owner, asking for permission to sell your fan art
You can either ship an email or a printed letter, or both. Sending both is unremarkably the best choice as some companies ignore all written letters or emails, and sending both offers the best chance of your getting through. You should generally avoid calling to brand your request, as that reduces the chances of your request reaching the bodily copyright owner.
In the message you'll send to them, you should let them know which of their works you lot wish to sell, how you lot want to sell them, and where. You can even get out links to your e-commerce stores and social media handles if you program to utilize those to market your fan art.
- Expect for a response before proceeding
A asking letter doesn't serve as a go-alee from the copyright possessor. You don't merely demand to notify them about your willingness to sell their intellectual holding, y'all demand to get written permission from them to stay on the safe side of the constabulary.
If the copyright owner is a big company like Nintendo, you lot should caryatid yourself for a negative response. Frankly, the chances of getting a visitor like that to permit y'all to sell your fan art are pretty modest, just nothing is impossible.
However, if the copyright possessor is a modest company or an private, your chances of getting a positive response become much higher. In these cases, the chances are higher that yous'll be allowed to pay a licensing fee to sell your fan art.
If y'all receive a negative response from the copyright owner after a request to sell your fan art, you should avoid selling it at all costs. Doing so means you are willingly infringing on their copyright, which is a much more than serious legal case than doing it without asking for any kind of permission in the first place.
two. Sell Fan Art In one case The Copyright Has Expired
While this may exist a lot less practical and a lot more fourth dimension-consuming than the previous option, it'south still a legal option and it will keep you lot out of trouble if yous follow this step.
This works on the premise that copyrights don't last forever. If the copyright is owned by an individual, they only last until seventy years after the copyright possessor dies. If information technology's endemic by a corporation, the copyright volition last for 95 years from the engagement of publication, or 120 years if information technology was never published.
If you're willing to expect until the copyright for the fan arts y'all create expire, yous may not have to worry about copyright. This may sound funny and impractical, but there is a minuscule chance that your favorite fan art will shortly be copyright-free, and you'll be able to sell it without worries.
One scenario is if the original creator of the comic or story has been long dead even before you were born. In a couple of years, the copyright may expire, and you'll be free to use the work in the public domain.
But again, this is very impractical considering that the most popular characters for fan fine art come from more contempo times and the copyright is in full effect.
3. Move to a Copyright-Free Country to Sell Fan Fine art
If you tin't go the copyright holder to allow you lot to sell your fan art and you lot aren't willing to wait for 70 years or longer, you lot tin simply motion to a country where the copyright police doesn't apply.
At the moment, there are no copyright laws applicative in Turkmenistan, Eritrea, or San Marino. If you're willing to movement to any of these three countries and sell your fan art inside their markets, you won't take a chance any fines or lawsuits.
However, the combined population of these iii countries is less than x meg, which is nigh ane-4th of the population of California solitary. Besides, there is no guarantee that the people in these countries are even interested in the fan fine art that you're trying to sell.
While you tin avoid legal trouble by selling your fan art in a copyright-gratuitous country, you'll also miss out on a lot of money, which is the main flaw of this method.
iv. Use a Service That Lets Y'all Sell Fan Art Legally(Best Style!)
If you've sent a letter or email to request permission to sell your fan art, y'all almost certainly received a negative response. Fortunately, that isn't the end of the road, especially if the owner of the copyright partners with a website that lets you sell legal fan fine art.
The mode these websites piece of work is pretty straightforward. They each have a fan art program where they partner with the copyright owners to permit the sales of the IP on their website, and they partner with artists who create those materials.
When the artist sells the fan art on the platform, the platform deducts a specified percent from the sale as their profit and pays royalties to the copyright owner. The residual of the sale so goes to the fan creative person.
If you're looking for a service like this, yous can first with Redbubble. Redbubble is the most popular fan fine art selling service online, equally they have partnerships with scores of brands already. You only have to join their partner program, hold to the terms, create your fan art, and make your money.
Teepublic is another website where you can sell your fan art legally, but in this case, you lot make them into t-shirts, as the proper noun implies. Since Teepublic has been acquired by Redbubble, most of the brands partnering with Redbubble also now piece of work with Teepublic.
Design by Humans is like to Teepublic, but it is not owned by Redbubble. It as well lets you create t-shirts with your fan art and pays a commission on every sale. Pattern by Humans must corroborate your designs earlier y'all can sell them as tees on the website, but you don't take to worry about copyright after blessing.
Final Thoughts on Legal FanArt
While most avenues of legally selling fan art won't piece of work well for an individual creative person, all is not lost.
Selling your fan art through an online company that has legal agreements already in place with several companies and brands is an platonic solution if you lot love creating fan art and want to go it out into the market.
More than From Artistry Found
- 13 All-time NFT Art Marketplace Websites (Buy & Sell NFTs)
- The 21 All-time Places to Sell Art Online (Ultimate Guide!)
- How to Make Art Prints to Sell on Etsy (Step-by-Step)
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Source: https://artistryfound.com/your-guide-to-selling-fan-art-legally/
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