Copyright

[SoulKiss]

Disclaimer: I am not a copyright specialist, a lawyer or any of that kind of low-life scum, just a guy who has seen and heard a few horror stories.

Having chimed in on a couple of threads with copyright horror stories something occurred to me that seemed relevent to both threads, but to avoid cross posting I thought I would start another one.

In defence of the companies.

They NEED to actively defend their copyrights/licenced rights. If they dont, then when someone who isn't just a little guy printing a few stickers, or puting home movies up on a site for free, comes along and starts making money off their back, they have a harder time defending themselves.

It is sometimes worthwhile to contact these people, on a case for case basis and ask permission to use these things.

If you are open and honest about what you want to do then they often WILL give written permission to do it - especially if it is not-for profit, or if its something they dont currently do, or want to do in the future.

If they have a record of permission being given then it doesn't "dilute" their brand.

David