I believe it's technically illegal, but companies look the other way. Anime is another story altogether. I recall hearing that the major anime cons have banned fan art outright.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Most of my friends who go to anime cons would disagree, Ironik, but then I don't go to them myself so I wouldn't know. (edit for clarity: because a lot of them go and ask on DA "should I do x or y fan art to sell at the anime con next month?")
But yeah it's technically infringement, however a lot of times the stuff being sold is one-off and not enough to make a dent in any professional *studio* income. I'm talking about superhero stuff though.
Anime on the other hand I would imagine IS a bigger problem because there are SO darn many fans, and SO many individuals trying to make a buck on fan art.
I've tried to warn people away from too much fan art, because with only few exceptions it's mostly garbage, and about characters that all... look... the same... (and having the comic store experience I do, that's saying a LOT about what I see on deviantart...)
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If anything, i bet the companies are fine with it.
First off they get free publicity.
Secondly, companies dont care unless you are making thousands of dollars. A few hundred or less they dont care. Especially since they would probably be paying more than that for said publicity.
Also, I think there are loop holes when it comes to peoples art. As long as they arnt ripping off someone elses work or a comic over or whatever, (basically, original) than I think there are outs if they ever did call someone on it.
Not sure about that third thing but the first 2 are the main points.
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I Googled the question, and the major anime cons look to have disallowed selling fan art. In 2006 Otakon even said they were thinking about banning *displaying* fan art... I guess they thought maybe they consider it advertising for future illegal activity.
Couldn't find anything definitive about Comic Con. Seems like it is a "look the other way" situation.
I don't go to cons, so I don't know first hand what the situation is.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
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If anything, i bet the companies are fine with it.
First off they get free publicity.
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Trust me, you don't want to test that theory with the wrong company. They are *not* okay with it. They are okay with their artists making quick money at conventions, they are not okay with it being out of control.
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Secondly, companies dont care unless you are making thousands of dollars. A few hundred or less they dont care. Especially since they would probably be paying more than that for said publicity.
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You'd think that. However... A guy in Pern fandom went up against McCaffrey after she tried to stop him from making *legal* leatherworks and selling them - the art wasn't hers to approve or deny, so far as I know. This guy made far, far less than "thousands of dollars" on his works, AND had made a deal specifically with the original artist whose works he was reproducing in leather form.
I was slammed with a copyright infringement c&d by McCaffrey for *putting up a completely unrelated fanwork on line* - and joined a group called Burned for Fandom which Dee Dreslaugh started after she'd been hit with a threat in the 6-figure range for having sold 130$ worth of art.
People don't care how much you make. It's whether they have lawyers who are interested in stroking their own egos to get somewhere, whether you'll be hit or not. Been there. Done that. Know better.
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Also, I think there are loop holes when it comes to peoples art. As long as they arnt ripping off someone elses work or a comic over or whatever, (basically, original) than I think there are outs if they ever did call someone on it.
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Nope. It's infringement the moment you sell something for money. Period. Whether it's ENFORCED is the issue here.
Copyright and trademark infringement are serious. It's whether the owners of said marks want to devote all their time (like McCaffrey's - who has stopped sending such vile c&ds to fans ) hunting them down. You would THINK they want the free press, but they DO NOT want.
Some do. The guy who created Redwall for instance, has (at least, had, when I last saw it several years ago) a huge fan following *on his own site* and allowed people to freely use his stuff because he enjoyed seeing what they'd do with it. Such night and day efforts of patrolling for infringement mean only one thing:
Don't do until you know.
Avoid *actual copyrighted characters* but legally placing your OWN character "in the world of x" is completely legal - concepts cannot be copyrighted, period - so if you want to write / draw your XMen or Naruto type character you can and should. Just don't include the real thing.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
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How is it legal to sell fan art of copyrighted characters at conventions? It seems people do it a lot. (I actually was thinking anime convention, but I think it applies to both of them.)