I'm considering releasing a pair of characters I've created as freebies.  They're made to at least resemble the male and female lead from Disney's "High School Musical" and will be named after them as well.  I do, however, have one qualm about the female character.  If and when I release her, a complete skin texture set will be included in the package.  Now, the actress whose features I studied to create the character is not quite 18.  Where I think this might be a problem is that there's nothing keeping some pervert somewhere from using the freebie for less-than-commendable purposes, no matter what my own intentions are in releasing it.   I'm wondering if I should wait until she does turn 18 just to be on the safe side.  Am I being overly cautious, or do I have a valid concern?  How is the issue handled with character packs for the Millenium Kids?

You'll have a bigger problem with the name and associating it with anything Disney then with a fake skin texture.

Just change the names a little. Also say it's "simular to'.

Really?  Over at Animotions, members release freebies for DC and Marvel Comics characters all the time without any legal trouble.  Is there some difference between DC/Marvel and Disney?

Disney is typically very agressive in protecting it's intellectual and talent porperties. It's best not to temp their lawyers.

mike

FYI, we do not accept items named for trademarks or after celebrities into the freestuff at Renderosity, due to legal concerns.

So by giving them 'another' name (even a similar name to suggest who they are) would be ok?? Ive seen at least 2 character packs in RMP of celeb lookalikeys and have names to suggest who they are so it must be ok. Is the fact that they resemble another person/character the problem or the naming of such character? 

don't be too sure about DC and Marvel being lax. I dunno anybody who's received a "cease and desist" document from marvel, but I know some who have gotten 'em from DC, warner bros. and disney. the same beverly hills lawyer represents DC and warner bros, AFAIK. he'll send ya a C&D quicker than grease thru a goose.

I've seen three fc2 freebies that were explicitly named for the real people they were made to resemble (either here or at 3D Commune): Michael (Jackson), W (the President), and the Rock.  This is what led me to believe it was OK to do stuff like this.

The difference in my case may be that I want to name my freebies after the characters instead of the actors.  Do you think I've diagnosed that correctly?

now freebies and selling them are like day and night. you sell them and they are trademark you will get in trouble. for it is against the law to copy that image.  free ones them may over look but most of the time you can not use that image comm. Like StarWars, I would love to do some artwork but GL will send me to jail. and yes I do have lots of StarWar mods, but I don't use them.

you need to learn about the law before you start selling...

Well, that's what I was saying all along: freebies.  I knew better than to try selling them.  That would be a blatant violation of copyright, and I have too much respect for intellectual/artistic property to do that.  I just wasn't sure about freebies.  I had every intention of crediting Disney, too, but I doubt that makes a difference. 

My understanding of copyright law has always been that, as long as proper credit is given, violation begins only when money is made.  I guess I need to re-evaluate my understanding a little.

Actually, GL won't send you to jail for doing Star Wars stuff as long as you don't sell any of it, not even renders. So you can pretty much make all the fan art you like, provided you keep things like Darth Vader getting jiggy with Palpatine out of the reach of kiddies. ;-)

Disney, otoh, is so uptight about what it considers theirs it's a wonder they even have fans, what with all the C&Ds & lawsuits they keep slinging around.

well everything I do is for sell... it's not a hobby.. now women is a hobby I don't sell them (just joking) I know I play around with my starwar mods but I don't make any to sell. I don't do disy stuff but I do watch the movies lol

I wish I had a dollar for every time the "freebies are different than items for sale" copyright/trademark myth has been repeated here. :lol:

I have been watching several posts regarding using copyrighted characters...

I remember when I was a kid and wanted a picture of Disney's Uncle Scrooge on a sweatshirt for myself (1 and ONLY 1 would have been made).

I was the good law abiding citizen, and wrote Disney, asking permission to use one of their characters for a personal sweatshirt that would not be mass produced.

Their response, in a nut shell...nope

So, I let it go.  The moral of this...

If it were me, I wouldn't take the chance on offering it to the public, even as a freebie. Even though most of the people here are honest, all it takes is one single person, to get YOU in legal trouble, if they use it for a video clip (can't poser do videos?) or advertising.

I know you can do fan art, and post it, heck everyone does it, and I don't think you can get into any trouble.

I think (and correct me lawyers) by law you have to change something by 10-20% from the original to use it (beyond eye color, etc).

But, if you REALLY want to do these characters, their proper names, and offer them as a freebie, I would check Renderosity's rules regarding this sort of thing, and even check to see if the characters of the movie are copyrighted.

Another option, change the names and don't reference Disney in anyway, shap or form...after all...how many anglo-saxxon females are available for sale?

Okay, now the whole sweatshirt thing was just plain anal!  I'm a little disappointed that the world's premier child-/family-oriented entertainment company is that mean about fans using their characters.  I'm surprised the "High School Musical" section at FanFiction.net (with over 2000 stories) is still up if Disney is still anywhere near as anal as they obviously were when you were a kid.  And I'm trying to get in contact with them about possibly using my Spanish translations of the songs from the movie! 

But alas, ranting will do little to change their mind, so I've pretty much decided I'm either not going to put up the freebies at all or I'm going to portray them as completely generic characters.  What I might even do is switch the names around.  Troy and Gabriela become Gabriel and Trisha or something like that. 

I wish I had a dollar for every time the "freebies are different than items for sale" copyright/trademark myth has been repeated here.

Ohhhhhhh!  I'd like that too!  :)

I think it's all about companies finding the sites. Disney probably finds more then most because they might possibly have people doing random searches and what not. I know of a site that had lion-king fan art that got themselves a cease and disist order. :( But his other site that had Marvel fan-works hasn't gotten one.

If you want anal a few months ago on the news, Disney was sueing a small mom and pop day care for having Mickey Mouse and some other Disney characters painted on the walls of their playroom. Painting over them was not going to be good enough for Disney they wanted money too. I dont remember exactly how much, but Im pretty sure it was in the thousands of dollars range.

Iuvenis_Scriptor:
If you named the morphs after the character names (first names only) then that would be acceptable in the Freestuff.

Quote - I think (and correct me lawyers) by law you have to change something by 10-20% from the original to use it (beyond eye color, etc).

the % thing is a myth.

strictly by law any duplication or deritive work must have permission from the original creator.

Fan art is not legal, it is generaly tolerated.

Different IP owners have different policies regarding fan works. Most tolerate it -- sorta like "don't ask, don't tell" --  some are rabid persecutors of anything they even think is derived from/inspired by their characters -- Disney -- and a small few actually encourage it within certain limits like the "no porn (at least not in public or where kids can access it) and no profit" rule. So it's always best to check out which ones permit certain activities and which do not and abide by their terms.

I had never intended on using last names anyway.  So are you telling me that using the actual first names of the movie characters is okay as long as I omit any references to Disney or the movie itself?

greg, if ya got keyword "disney" anywhere on yer page in searchable text, including meta tags, they'll be all over ya like white on rice.

Right.  So if I just don't even mention anything related to Disney or "High School Musical" in the freebie description, I should be okay using the names "Troy" and "Gabriela," right?  After all, I seriously doubt Disney can copyright the names themselves (something more exotic like "Simba," maybe, but not run-of-the-mill given names).  In fact, one thing that might help ambiguate the identity, at least in the case of the female character, is that I insist on spelling her name with only one 'l' while Disney spells it with two.  Drives me nuts, really.  The character's looks and last name make it highly likely that she was intended to be Latina, and a double 'l' sounds like a consonantal 'y' in Spanish.  Her name is not "Gabrieya," people!  But I'm getting OT here.  The point is if I present these freebies as completely generic characters and let those who are familiar with "High School Musical" figure out my true intentions for themselves, I should be free and clear.  Am I inferring correctly?

That is what appears to be correct - Putting freebie characters up named "Troy" and "Gabriela" with no reference to any outside content whatsoever should be perfectly fine.

Well, that solves that problem, then.  Now all I gotta do is wait to hear back from Daz about distributing Troy's head texture.  You see, the whole texture is original except for the eyebrows, which were copied from the M3 Universal Textures (Hi-Res), scaled down a bit, and grafted onto the face using blending tools found in Adobe Photoshop.  I did a similar thing with Gabriela's eyebrows and lips, drawing from the head texture for "Fiona for V3."  I have contacted Fiona's creaters on the matter as well, and hopefully I'll hear back from them soon.

"My understanding of copyright law has always been that, as long as proper credit is given, violation begins only when money is made. "
It depend on the country, the USA laws makes no difference  between free and commercial use.