Hey i work on game art, but i also paint on my own. and i did a realy nice painting from a scinerio in Harry Potter. (yes i know im a complete looser. but i love those damn books) anyway.... i did NOT paint a frame from the movie, use any of the official Harry Potter artwork as reference, and it does NOT say Harry Potter anywhere on the painting. its a completely original image inspired by a scene in the third book. SO... would it be illegal to auction off the painting? if you know anything about copyright laws please post, If your going to ridicule me for being a Harry Potter fan... ok, you can post too. and if you had a transplanted baboon heart and your aunts name is fred, DEFFINETLY post. you wierdo!

quote: Original post by neonzero2
and if you had a transplanted baboon heart and your aunts name is fred, DEFFINETLY post. you wierdo!

What is the average age here anyway?



You should have kept quiet about it, guess their lawyers can now prove you used Harry Potter as a basis for the artwork


TENZERO
SOFTWARE

TRY OUT
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Noooooo! What have you done? Don''t you know gamedev.net is being monitored by the US and Russian government(gamedev.ru)every second? Now everybody knows

As long as you don''t mention the name "Harry Potter" in the description of the painting there''s no problem. Remember, ideas can''t be copyrighted, only their implementation.

thanks for the info. im glad SOMEONE seems to know a little about copywright laws.
as for the rest of you i havent made i dime off anything, i could bring all my artwork to there office and give it away on the street and they couldent do anything about it

It is possible (likely) that the likeness of Harry Potter has been trademarked, in which case using the characters in any form can get you in trouble. You would be clear of copyright violation, but not trademark infringement.

Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Taking Puzzle Games to A Whole New Dimension

Whenever someone creates an original image, such as Harry Potter, Mickey Mouse, Pokemons, etc., the creator has copyright protection, which gives him/her the exclusive rights to create works based on the character. If you painted a picture that clearly shows Harry Potter, then you are probably stepping on someone's copyright, probably held by Harry Potter's publisher, which also 'prevents' you from showing the painting in a public place, whether or not you make any money or not, although you probably won't get prosecuted. As long as the value of the painting is not increased by an association with Harry Potter, you're fine...an inspired scene seems ok.

Trademark would only cover this if you use the name Harry Potter, because trademark only covers the naming of products and companies. So you'd might run into trademark problems if you sold a children's book with a desceptive name, such as Harry Pooper.

[edited by - WoR on September 11, 2002 5:29:16 AM]

quote: Original post by WoR
Whenever someone creates an original image, such as Harry Potter, Mickey Mouse, Pokemons, etc., the creator has copyright protection, which gives him/her the exclusive rights to create works based on the character.

Trademark would only cover this if you use the name Harry Potter, because trademark only covers the naming of products and companies.

Sorry, but you are not correct. Copyrights always cover a specific work/body of art. They don''t cover derivatives of it. As I said, the likeness of a person or character can be trademarked. I tried to find a page on the USPTO site discussing likenesses, but the best I could find is this page, which points out how several celeberties have trademarked their likeness:
http://www.uspto.gov/go/kids/ponder4.htm

Try doing a google search for "Mickey Mouse trademark likeness" and you will find tons of documents discussing it. Same for Buggs Bunny, Superman, or any of your other favorite cartoon characters.





Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Taking Puzzle Games to A Whole New Dimension

As long as they can''t prove that it''s a painting of Harry Potter (which as long as it doesn''t look blatantly similar is hard to do) then you''re ok, as I understand it. As long as you don''t draw it exactly the same way they do.. Same goes for something like Superman. You can draw a flying man in with a cape and if he''s wearing a green cape with a letter U on his chest there''s no way they can say "that''s superman." That''s what I''m trying to say.

I''m sorry LordKronos but you''re the one who''s wrong about copyright and trademark law. First of all, copyright law does cover derivative works and the characters in a copyrighted work. If you write a story involving Harry Potter you are violating the publisher''s copyright.

Unlike copyright law, trademark law does not cover the characters themselves (or at least it''s not supposed to), it can only prevent use of character names in certain contexts.