首页 / 法律问答 / 想在你的菜单上用一个受版权保护的角色?让我来帮你。

想在你的菜单上用一个受版权保护的角色?让我来帮你。

商业律师 5 回答
好吧,这事儿有点长,但我保证有意思。 去年,我帮朋友做数码设计,他介绍了个开酒吧的妹子,想重新搞一下菜单。妹子叫妮可,想设计个简单的单页菜单,而且因为疫情没啥钱,我就答应免费帮忙。 妮可天天发Pinterest上的图,说这个可爱那个好看,能不能照着做。干过设计的都知道,最烦别人指手画脚。你可以提意见,但别照搬别人的作品啊。 我按她的要求做了三个版本,改了五天才搞定,因为她对自己拍的照片不满意。 第一个版本颜色太多,她不喜欢(就三个主色好吗)。第二个我忘了她怎么说的。第三个她终于满意了,但又说能不能把底下的桌子去掉,还有那个卡通人物不太符合酒吧的风格。 虽然我不是科班出身,但好歹也算个设计师,客户都挺喜欢我的作品。妮可的妹妹娜塔莉,看了本书就觉得自己是设计大师了,非要跟姐姐说干嘛不找她。 总之,我被拉进一个群,被各种拿着盘子的卡通人物轰炸。过了几天,那个“惊世骇俗”的菜单终于出炉了。那是我第三个设计,去掉了桌子,用了个儿童字体,还有个棕发卡通女孩拿着盘子。我发誓在哪儿见过这个女孩。妮可超喜欢!唯一的问题是,原来桌子的地方被涂成了红色,边缘还有白色的轮廓。娜塔莉让我修一下。 我用谷歌搜了一下图片,发现这个卡通女孩是本地一个美食博客“XYZ美食家”的吉祥物。我问她们确定要用这个吉祥物吗?她们说确定。 好吧,我把原来的设计改成了她们想要的样子。然后我修改了合同,注明妮可对设计负全责。合同签好,作品交了,这事儿就算完了。 结果三个月后,我收到了一封律师函。博客的原创作者告我侵权。我找了我妈的律师,她说版权问题很麻烦。我和律师说了之前的事,她说没问题,她来处理。关键是,虽然我设计了菜单,用了那个吉祥物,但合同上写明了我不用负任何责任。 又过了三个月,我被妮可和娜塔莉的短信和电话吵醒了,她们气疯了,说我害她们被告了。 我问发生了什么事,妮可说她收到法院传票了,因为酒吧的菜单设计。我说是按她们的要求做的。娜塔莉问为什么她们会被告,我说可能是因为用了“XYZ美食家”的吉祥物。娜塔莉说用一下也不至于被告,是不是我告的密。我说我没事告密干嘛,她们还到处探店呢。 后来,双方律师、妮可、娜塔莉、我和我的朋友(妮可邀请的)一起开了个会。对方律师说设计要设计师负责,我妈的律师直接拿出合同,念了那句“客户对设计及一切后果负全责”。对方律师听完就没话说了。 妮可问我妈的律师能不能帮她们,我妈的律师说不能。对方律师提出和解,让我付一半的诉讼费,否则就要告我。我妈的律师说,如果她们起诉又输了,我们还要告她们精神损失费。对方律师听完就走了。 我妈的律师一脸懵,妮可姐妹俩则是不高兴地抱着胳膊。我的朋友对妮可说,她们自己做错了。妮可叹了口气,说了声抱歉,谢谢我。 之后我就再也没见过妮可和娜塔莉了。有一次我去她的酒吧,发现招牌变成了“妮可酒吧”,用的是一家啤酒公司的logo。她看到我的时候很不高兴。 补充一下,很多人问我有没有警告过妮可姐妹。我只能说,可能警告过吧。在我的国家,大家都知道商业用途不能随便用版权人物。就算她们不知道,我在合同里也写了:“如果本产品用于任何商业目的(例如从非供应商创作的任何艺术品中获利),本人___将承担任何责任。”我还说有任何问题都可以问我。可惜很多人对设计这个行业不太重视。
回答次数 (5)
S
StormFalcon2
# 5
Bruh when you did the reverse image search... did you not once say, "This is a different company's logo. We can't use it for your logo without their permission."

I'm sorry but you opted to be the designer for these people. You failed to relay important information to them. And you knew what was going to happen because you had them sign that contract.

Maybe don't offer your services to people.
P
Phillips
# 4
Your clients were idiots.

I think that adding anything like "Shall this product be used for any commercial purpose (such as profiting from any art not made by the supplier) I, ___, will take any responsibility whatsoever". to a contract at that point is similar to saying "I need you to state that in writing." The party making this statement VERY clearly thinks it likely that something bad is going to happen and wants to make certain they won't be blamed for it.
逃兵ゞ
# 3
What I don't understand is why OP was willing to put the copyrighted/trademarked character into the design in the first place, knowing there would be a legal hassle. It isn't even like they wouldn't get paid if they didn't make the customer happy, because the customer wasn't paying OP at all.

"Hey, I figured out that you got the artwork of the character holding the plate from XYZ Foodies, so I'm not going to put it in my menu design because it is illegal and I don't want the hassle. You either need to find some free artwork, pay for a license, or get someone else to design your menu." Would have avoided the whole problem.
S
Stephen
# 2
Even within the PR and marketing industry the knowledge of copyright is a joke.

I've had a case several years ago with a very creative PR person who created a very nice promotion video. There were only one problem, he used a popular song from a very famous classic metal/rock band in the video, and when I asked him how much he had to pay for the copyright to use the song he just looked at me and said "I payed for it on iTunes so it's mine to do what want with, isn't it?".

That was when I and another colleague that were well versed in copyright law told him that what you pay for in iTunes is the right to listen to the song, not to use it in any of your own production.

In the end he contracted some indie band to make new music for the promotion video.
假爱人
# 1
People are so bizarre about copyright and their interpretations thereof.

I once got a $hitstorm of hate in a Facebook group for artists where someone proudly posted their new business cards, which featured a drawing of the Disney character Figment in a stock pose commonly used by Disney on different things in their theme parks. The pose was exact to the point where it was probably mostly traced.

I replied something to the effect of "Kudos to your daughter on doing a great job drawing Figment! You might want to be careful about using a copyrighted character for your business, Disney could come after you."

You'd think I was the most unkind person ever by the responses I got. Mostly the original poster saying that I didn't know what I was talking about, everybody does it, etc.

I frequently report those kind of people to the Disney piracy police, not so much because of the piracy, but because of the smug attitude about it. Meanwhile they are ripping off huge companies and small artists alike, selling what amounts to bootleg merchandise made on their Cricuts, and asking other people to do their tech support for them.
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