CBR: Pipeline - Feb 21, 2012

[CBR News]

Augie surveys the state of con sketches today and has a hard time recommending artists remain complacent, saying it's not Chicken Little; it's good business practice. Plus, coloring and lettering tips!


Full article here.

[Caanan]

I think Mr Murphy has the right idea.

I hope one day to join him in his stance, but I suspect my step up to the plate will be a gradual one, but I've set myself some guidelines to help get me there. And that is basically to encourage people to ask for a creator-owned character, and if I can, find the creator and give them a cut of the pie and a photo (or scan) of the art. If they don't want it, I'll give their share to the CBLDF or save it up til I can do something awesome with it myself for another struggling creator.

I wrote about the whole thing on my blog last week if anyone's interested in reading my meagre attempt to affect the situation. :)

[Selkirk]

why can't someone just find out...yes or no? couldn't someone(a columnist/writer for a comics website for instance ) just ask each company their stance/policy on convention sketches/commissions?

[DarthCommenter]

Let me assuage artists' and fans' fears about convention sketches (and only conventions sketches, not the selling of mass produced unlicensed goods).

Field v. Google Inc., 412 F. Supp. 2d 1106 - Dist. Court, D. Nevada 2006 clearly describes at least three legal defenses that can be used by an artist if Marvel tries to sue you for convention sketches.

Implied License, Estoppel and Fair Use.

Basically, if Marvel knows about potentially infringing conduct and does nothing to stop it, then Marvel is giving the artists an Implied License to use their IP and Marvel is Estopped from bring a civil action. Id at 1115-1117.

Marvel and DC know that every artist on the convention floor is using their characters. The biggest evidence of Marvel's knowledge and complacency is BLANK COVERS. What else are you supposed to do with those things?

Also, convention sketches in no way hurts Marvel's income stream, in fact it promotes Marvel, so there is an argument that convention sketches are a fair use.Id at 1121-1122.

Marvel and Disney may have big bad lawyers, but the legion of comic book fans has warriors of its own.

'Nuff Said

[alekesam]

Marvel and Disney may have big bad lawyers, but the legion of comic book fans has warriors of its own.

'Nuff Said

I'm not so sure about that given the fans utter willingness to throw a creator under the bus so long as it doesn't get in the way of getting their weekly Marvel and DC fix. If anything, if the fans and creators had more solidarity, there'd be better deals to be had for all parties.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

For what it's worth, I don't think Marvel is going after creators anytime soon. I just think it behooves artists to play it safe.

The problem with all the possible legal defenses to the case, though, is that someone has to foot the legal bill to fight it. Who wants to do that? Who can afford to do that?

As for the fans -- I can't believe, at this point, there's ANYTHING Marvel or DC could do that would seriously cause their fans to turn their backs on their favorite superhero characters in droves over the long haul. There's lots of lip service to that on the 'net, but no real action. Color me pessimistic.

-Augie

[Jesse Post]

Nice write-up, Auggie. And really solid advice about the one-time license. That's exactly the right legal process an artist should pursue if they want to do con sketches of someone else's IP. The scale and probability of consequences for unlicensed sales are irrelevant -- the unlicensed sales are still infringements even if you get away with it. The contract doesn't even have to come with a dollar; just a royalty-free license that automatically expires on the last day of the convention. They can build in all kinds of requirements: drawings can't be larger than a certain dimension, can only feature one character, can't have color, etc., etc. It's not provocative to ask, just safe and respectful.