Cafe Press Legalities by mrgreen

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Cafe Press Legalities

POSTED BY: MRGREEN
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 16:09
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Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:29 PM

So, does anyone know the legality of all these cafepress.com stores selling Firefly shirts and such?

I imagine that the logo and ship and such are all copywritten, no? The bluesun logo was posted on the official site, just saying 'enjoy', not listing any limitations on its sure that I can remember. But just becuase its not specifically mentioned doesn't make it available for public use...

So what's everyone think??

Rob

PS You can see my Blue Sun shirts at http://www.cafeshops.com/serenityvalley

If you can't run, you crawl, and if you can't crawl, well, if you can't do that, you find someone to carry you.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 12:58 PM

SERENITYNOW

(on behalf of dryope, who asked me to answer this)

Copyright law can be tricky to understand. First, it doesn't require anything on the part of the copyright owner. The Blue Sun logo, for example, doesn't need to be registered with anyone for copyright protection to apply. Second, it doesn't have to be protected all the time... so Whedon or whomever can let it slide for awhile, then sue you later for doing the same thing you've been doing.

Technically, it is usually up to the copyright holder to sue you for infringement. There is also a federal law making it a crime to reproduce copyrighted materials for profit, but it is seldom used except against people massively pirating software or videos.

Trademark law would come into play for the Firefly name and logos, because they are used on actual goods and services. They are also likely federally registered, though I haven't checked to see if that is the case. Trademarks must be actively policed in order to maintain their protection... therefore Whedon & pals are legally obliged to sue you in order to maintain their rights in the Firefly marks. They can turn a blind eye to a degree, but after a point they have to send out cease and desist letters or risk losing their rights in those marks.

Blue Sun, while a logo, is a logo for a fictional thing... so it's not protected by trademark law, but is still copyrighted. If you sell shirts with the logo for profit, you are technically commiting a federal crime (by infringing a copyrighted work for profit), and are potentially liable in civil court as well (should they choose to pursue you). It's not likely that you'd face either of these things, but the possibility definitely exists, and if someone official seeming tells you to quit, you'd be well advised to do so right away.

Cafepress.com gets away with what they do, I believe, by simply not looking at what you sell through them. They provide the service, but don't ask any questions. If they did, then they'd risk being liable for contributory infringement. They still do risk it, I suppose, but their defense would be that they just provide a service and are not responsible for how it is used.

http://dryope.typepad.com/superfly/

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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 1:57 PM

MRGREEN

That's basically how I interpreted it as well. I wasn't aware that copywritten material could be selectively enforced, unlike trademarks.

Anyone ever hear anything official as to what capacity the BlueSun logo was released for public use? Seems odd they'd put up a very high res solid colored (easy to edit when its a solid color and not a texture) with the message Enjoy! to me.

Anyways, thanks for the info!

Rob

If you can't run, you crawl, and if you can't crawl, well, if you can't do that, you find someone to carry you.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 4:09 PM

FFYING2

Quote:
Originally posted by SerenityNow:
Cafepress.com gets away with what they do, I believe, by simply not looking at what you sell through them. They provide the service, but don't ask any questions. If they did, then they'd risk being liable for contributory infringement. They still do risk it, I suppose, but their defense would be that they just provide a service and are not responsible for how it is used.

Actually, CafePress does notice after a while. After over 6 months selling "Firefly" characters in "South Park"-style, CafePress took those things off of Lux Lucre's shop page. He said CafePress was worried about infringing on Comedy Central's rights.

I don't think they had been contacted by Comedy Central yet. But they do

Quote:
encourage intellectual property rights owners to contact {them} if they believe that their rights have been infringed by the sale of a user's merchandise using {their} service.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/iprights.aspx

Ying
Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net

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