Legal question: Can I feature characters from other comics?

[kambreapratt]

You can ask the individual creators. Some might be like "OK" is enough and others might want more. Couldn't hurt to have something ready just in case.

[rollo75]

You might want to check the copyright regulations in your country. They might fall under Trademark or Copyright legislation. There are also "fair use" guidelines as well.
Cameos usually are considered "fair use" but not if you're making wholesale use of a proprietary character by having them in a story.

If in doubt, don't.

If you're fine with fair use...

[jedi34567]

I think an OK via message would be considered adequate consent in this case. A lot of creators would probably love having the additional exposure. You would have to make sure that you weren't misrepresenting the character in any way though, so be careful. You couldn't have the character smoking, for example, if the original comic doesn't explicitly show that the character smokes.

--Paul

[AlkseeyaKC]

I had some friends add Neon Glow camios into their comics with out asking me. I was like "OMG!!!!!! I AM SO HONORED!! O A O,"

I don't mind at all. it makes me feel awesome that someone would so such a thing. > w <

[taihendechu]

Hm... I think it depends. It's a difference if you let appear characters in the background (easter egg like) or if you involve them in the story (and decide what they are saying/doing). I personally wouldn't mind if one of my characters appears in the background... I would feel honored plus it's free advertising. Like fanart.^^ Involving them in the story is a different thing and I would wan't that people ask me before doing it. (Probably I would be fine about it.. it's just right to ask before..)

However, as everyone can have a different opinion about this, the best thing would be to ask the creators on their wall directly. If they respond and give their OK, it will be fine :3

[Sketchmazoid]

are you making money? if the answer is no, then you do whatever the heck you want yo.

[michaelson]

It never hurts to be polite and ask. Plus doing something like this is great, it helps connect artists and I think just asking them can get a dialogue going of your characters appearing in their backgrounds.

[Creaux]

Never hurts to ask, as Michael said! But here's what you can and cannot do with a "Yes" reply!

You can:
Feature their character in a non-major roll for a very short time (cameo as it's known)

You cannot:
Make revenue off of your work. Unless the artist and you sign a contract (say if you go to premium or make money off of your creation) you need to either pay the cameo'd artist a lump sum for use of their character for X amount of pages, or a cut of book sales, or no payment at all. But you NEED to have a written and referenceable document stating the terms otherwise you're totally messed over if you ever make money and an artist you asked pops up and (Not saying they will) lie and say you did it with no confirmation.

I've seen great comics go down because of small things like this! Be careful!

[MylCreates]

Awesome! I was actually considering felisneon to be one of the cameos.

[MylCreates]

Yeah, it's mostly just for easter egg sake just to show how much I honor some of my favortie Tapastic comics ^w^'.

[MylCreates]

At the moment no. But if the miracle ever happened that I ever did start making money from it (not sure if support program counts in this regard or if it's just physically publishing the book to sell at say a convention), I just want to be extra careful.

[MylCreates]

Thanks Creaux for the advice, I'll keep that in mind.

[Dranif]

Well, if you wanted to cameo any character from my comics, you most certainly may.

[AlkseeyaKC]

REALLY!!! ( * w *) Please do send me page when or if you do!! <3

[davidlhickmon]

I don't know about others, but I have an open "go ahead and use my characters" attitude. As far as then going to print, I would suggest first asking permission, and when you do, make sure you properly credit the original creators. Let them know you're going to credit them. This should buy you a lot of good will. It's basically free advertising.

[NagashiKhan]

Okay, here's a question too- I was thinking along the same lines myself. What if you wanted to use well known characters, but NOT as cameos, but as subjects of maybe scrutiny or even humor? The only money being made would be the possibility of being supported on the site, rather selling said comic.

For example, let's say I wanted Sonic The Hedgehog to have a conversation with one of the characters in the comic about something related to the games or the comics or what have you. Or, let's say I wanted Kurosaki Ichigo to interact with a character. Let's say I wanted Ryu from Street Fighter to make an appearance, or Samus Aran to vouch for women in video games, or Spider-man to preach about responsibility and crack a few dumb jokes, or hell- even use the likeness of youtubers, not for the sake of views or popularity but to ACTUALLY craft the episode around the pivotal point of whatever the character had to offer.

How does one approach this? Is it cool to just throw 'em in there, or is this taboo? Are there red tripwires to crawl around? Money to be paid? How do you even credit that in a comic? I feel like the answer could be simple, or it could be hella complicated and I don't want to bother anyways. I totally understand asking creators for using their characters, it's easy to come into contact with people on the site here. But what about corporations? Do they even care about comics on tapastic?

[kambreapratt]

Yes. Corporations do care about their IP. A lot of people say "it falls under parody" Yes and no. Corporations can still go after you even if you don't make any money on it. On the Webcomic Alliance Podcast they had an episode with a lawyer on it who goes into detail about this very thing. Do people do it? Yes. Should they? Probably not. People will get away with it until they don't. Then the severity of punishment will probably go by how long you did it. Anymore companies like Disney are cracking down like crazy. They sued a day care for having Disney characters painted on their wall. Other companies are starting to become more aggressive towards using their characters.

I know a lot of people basically feel that it should be okay because ____ company has plenty. But the issues the corporations have ground on is damages to their brand. If you do a naked character engaged in something deemed inappropriate it can negatively impact the brand that the company spent year and money developing. Or if someone has to go through proper channels and pay licensing fees and agreements to represent the characters in a certain way, it isn't right others don't have to pay and can just take an IP and represent it however they want. It happens all the time.

Is it likely you will get caught. Not really, but it is possible and something to consider.

[NagashiKhan]

In this case, what is the proper procedure? How do you approach a corporation? Or is it even worth it?

[kambreapratt]

Proper procedure would be to get permission or pay for licensing. I doubt it is worth it. You can just use them, and you probably will be okay. I am saying that if the IP owners find out they can go after you and they have gone after people for things before. So it is up to you. Legally, you can't do it without license agreements, permission, etc, but people still do.

[NagashiKhan]

In that case, I'd rather not. If I legit have to pay to draw a character I'd rather just work around it. Thank you for the help though! I guess Tapastic characters are nearer in reach, eh?