Using the Superman image

[gumchain]

Good morning. I have a client that would like me to superimpose their head onto Superman. They would be using it for their personal use only, but I'm concerned about the legal aspects of using Superman. Do you know of a way I can do this legally? Would I simply just need to find a place to purchase the image in a digital format for my own use?

Thanks for your help.
Joanna

[SpeedRacerSlots]

Warner Bros icon image...
If it was your personal stuff... thats one thing.
Doing it for business.... i wouldnt touch that with a 20ft pole.
Not unless you or they have a release and approval letter on Warner Bros/Time Warner or whatever it is letter head.

[photonewb]

superman and his image is all copyright protected.

deal with that knowledge as you will

[donlaw]

We do fun photoshopped images of movie posters, TV shows, and superheroes for halloween. But it jis ust shown here at our firm. Not for public use or promotion.
I think as long as it is personal use only there is no problem.
But you should be selling anything that uses copyright imagery.

[gumchain]

That is pretty much what I was thinking as well. Thanks for the responses.

-Joanna

[toverman]

Maybe they'd be open to a stylized initial (using their first name?) in place of the trademark "S" ???

[Jeff Lane]

Oh dear. Another complicated issue, another opportunity to get lots of "folk wisdom" about the law, which may or may not be accurate.

The legal issue implicated in your initial question, Joanna, is whether your superimposition of a client's face on the copyrighted work created by another is whether this would be a "fair use" (assuming you don't actually have WB's written consent, which probably would have meant you wouldn't be asking us here).

Here's the very brief thumbnail of what the US Government says at www.copyright.gov:

Section 107 of the Copyright Act, [17 U.S.C. sec. 101 et seq.] contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

the nature of the copyrighted work;

amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

What the Copyright Office's web site does not tell you is that if you were to walk into your nearest law library and looked up Title 17 of the US Code Annotated, you'd be picking up several volumes of books, containing very small type of very short blurbs summarizing much longer cases from which the answer to your question should be derived before you rely on it.

One important thing to keep in mind is this: YOU are doing this FOR A CLIENT. That implies some kind of commercial relationship, which would be a factor against fair use. IF (all-caps IF) your client is telling you the complete truth and will never show the work to others, could you win a lawsuit challenging whether your derivitave work is "fair use"? Maybe, maybe not. Could you get away with it (in other words, are you likely to get caught)? Under all the circumstances, yeah, probably so. Would the fact that WB probably won't catch you make it right?

I guess we just stepped out of my legal bailiwick and into the realm of ethics and morality. And you're probably better off not relying a lawyer for that evaluation. But one other way to think about it is this: How would you feel about somebody using your work without you knowing about or being compensated for it?

[jkderby]

If you are a PPA member, give them a call.

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by jkderby

If you are a PPA member, give them a call.

I just called PPA and they didn't have any messages or anything for me.
What did they want ??

[Truckman]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

I just called PPA and they didn't have any messages or anything for me.
What did they want ??

They said they wanted you to quit trying to be funny with so many comedians out of work or they'd start sending cameras to stand-up comics......Ben