Are Poser Superman pictures properly permissible, or are they legally liable and only surviving because DC can't be bothered to hunt them down That one's a weird one, in that if it's not derived from an actual Superman drawing (though he's been drawn from so many angles it woudl be hard to prove one way or another) then it's not a copyright violation per se, but if the pic is sold then it's using his image for profit which could easily violate both copyright and trademark laws at the same time. Pretty much when it's fan art and not sold, then they could sue you, but only for a cease and desist as there is no profit made and thus no portion that can be claimed by the owning company. They don't do that because that fan art means fans, and those are things they like. It's not that DC can't be bothere to hunt them down, it's that AOL doesn't WANT to, because that would be pretty bad PR -- hard to keep a fan you've sued for a cease and desist.