flags clip art
May 31st, 2010 | 
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flags clip art
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US $4.73
How to get away with using copyrighted material?
I'm a graphic designer:
one of my Instructors in school once said: for a image of a anything or anyone you have to change the it from the original at least 5 different ways and you wont get lawyers coming to your house..
i notice on cafe press; people are just using clipped images from the internet as their t-shirt designs... how is this possible that they are not getting flagged???
Others use a character in a composition with the character in a different background and so on
(which i can understand; in a way it is original and its nothing the company has thought of)
if this is ok then.... i have tons of ideas.....
* OR what about using an existing character or person and doing a original illustration of the character(you know, like fan art)??
aside form images;
how do u get away with using quotes or lyrics in a t-shirt design in cafe press??
I wouldn't live and die by the magic 5 changes rule your professor said. There's no number of changes that will guarantee you wont get sued. In most cases it's at the discretion of the judge, jury, or committee to decide if the reproduction is close enough to the original image to be considered copyright infringement.
Fan art is one thing, but the minute you start making money off of it from sales, it's illegal.
A lot of people get away with it, just because there aren't enough people to police every copyright. It's usually a matter of the creator of the artwork (or the owner of it's rights) to bring it to the attention of the illegal vendor and file a C&D order.
My advice is just to not do it. Getting sued is no fun. You can end up losing your car, or home, or a percentage of your paycheck for years to come.
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