Copyright laws on artwork?

mikdawg

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I took some sideart and bezel artwork to a local print ship and they are worried about copyright laws. Not being in the printing businesss, I did not know how to answer them. Is it ok to reproduced arcade artwork or is that a no no?

Thanks,

Greg
 
This has never happend to me, don't know the legals on subject. But I would comment on why they care what I Want to buy.. Its not their problem if you do something illegal, right?
 
Agree on the go somewhere else post.

To add to my dork creds here, when City of Heroes first came out I mocked up a very good likeness of Captain Marvel (the Shazam one, not the atomic one). I got a really well balanced screen shot and took it to Wal-Mart to get a glossy 8x10 made to add to the melange of oddities on my office wall. They fought me back and forth over a screen shot I made on my own computer with no trademarks of any kind on it.

I finally got them to agree to print the damn thing when I insisted it was made by me on my computer. It seems to be strictly the printer's discretion (granted, the zipperheads at Wal-Mart are not a print shop but I have a few friends who run one here and would never bat an eye at reproducing something like that).

I really think it is a very subjective situation. Try another shop...
 
I know a guy that has reproed art for classic restorations. He usually makes the file about an inch bigger than what he needs, then adds a line there that says ©2012 Joe Blow Designs. If they say anything about an Atari or Nintendo logo/copyright visible elsewhere on the art, he tells them he is a game artwork designer and is making a presentation piece for a meeting.

He says once you get a print shop to believe you once, you just keep using that place.

I have a local friend/arcade buddy who has a silkscreen/printing shop in his garage, so I could go there if necessary...
 
I work for a decently large printing company. From a legal perspective they aren't allowed to sell copyright printed work unless they have a license to do so. However, the law is relatively gray in that area in that no one is going to come after you for printing a single one off. If you show a pattern of it, or sell hundreds or more of them though, someone will likely come after you.

IOW, the law is pretty strict, but laws are only as good as their enforcement, and the enforcement is lax on one-offs and extremely punitive on mass production.

The particular business I work for is an online "print on demand" company. We have a department of people specifically to review designs submitted and stop the order if its a copyright violation. I've been told from a legal perspective that such a setup is enough to get us out of copyright lawsuits since we are making an attempt to not print copyrighted stuff.

Hopefully that little tidbit helps :)
 
I took some sideart and bezel artwork to a local print ship and they are worried about copyright laws. Not being in the printing businesss, I did not know how to answer them. Is it ok to reproduced arcade artwork or is that a no no?

Thanks,

Greg

The technical answer is that, yes, the artwork is copyright protected and will be for decades. As are any characters on it, logos, game names and such. For a one-off in personal use, it will probably fall under 'fair use', but that's a massive grey area. If you were going to have a dozen printed, and sell them to friends, you've definitely moved past the line.

I don't know how things stand when it comes to vids, but when it comes to pinball most of the bigger old manufacturers can and will come down with a big ass hammer if they catch you reselling without permission. Gottlieb in particular allows nothing to get reproduced without permission, and never allows anything to be available online (Rom files, schematics, manuals, etc...), when it comes to pins. Not sure about their vids.

-Hans
 
I took some sideart and bezel artwork to a local print ship and they are worried about copyright laws. Not being in the printing businesss, I did not know how to answer them. Is it ok to reproduced arcade artwork or is that a no no?

Thanks,

Greg

You can print copy righted stuff off, but they can't charge for it. So either have them make up some stupid charge to cover the printing or make it alittle bit bigger or smaller. And you should be ok.

Hope this helps
 
Well, how do Rich and Darin do what they do? Don't get me wrong, these guys are a treasure to this hobby. I don't want to see them end up in jail.
 
Well, how do Rich and Darin do what they do? Don't get me wrong, these guys are a treasure to this hobby. I don't want to see them end up in jail.

Generally by contacting the copyright holder, or their designated agents, and asking for permission before printing. Then it usually involves a fee of some sort per piece that they pay back.

Phoenix Arcade, for instance. if you look at the cabinet decals for Funhouse, you can see the Williams hologram sticker on the front panel piece. These are the proof that the licensing was approved and paid.

-Hans
 
Thanks guys! It does seem like a big grey area. I am only looking to do one print so maybe I will run that by him. If not, then I will take my money somewhere else.
 
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