User blog comment:Semanticdrifter/Understanding Fair Use/@comment-954127-20121127201250/@comment-166269-20121127203146


 * There seems to be a lot of talk about each image, but its more about the character likenesses and attributes. The Images themselves (aka art) are not copyrighted. Never have been, never will be.

I have no idea where you got this idea, but a vast corpus of US law and court rulings say you're wrong. If you draw a picture, that picture is copyrighted to you; this happens automatically, regardless of what you believe about how copyright works or whether you explicitly claim copyright (you can choose to waive the rights and protections granted automatically by copyright, but that's another issue). If you find a picture someone else drew, it's copyrighted to them, unless they've explicitly released it into the public domain.

By contrast, character designs aren't copyrighted, they're trademarked. Mickey Mouse (and all other Disney characters) are trademarked for perpetuity; the works they appear in are copyrighted to Disney. This is an important distinction, but one that is sadly lost on many people who really need to understand it. This is why fan art can be controlled; any company that creates IP is going to take the time to trademark their original characters, which gives them legal recourse to restrict how those characters are used outside of their works.