DESIGNING YOUR OWN T SHIRT ONLINE

[dyli795]

when designing a t shirt online using an image from google,is heir a problem with copyright, if so, and i minimally tweak it using microsoft paint.would that be legal.? thanks in anticipation

[Buenchico]

All online images are subject to copyright (unless, of course, the original copyright owner has placed the image in the public domain) so theoretically you can't use any such image on a T-shirt. (You shouldn't even save the picture to your hard drive). 'Tweaking it' won't change the copyright situation.

In practice, if you're just creating a single T-shirt for yourself and you like the picture of a dog placed online by a proud owner in Australia, the chances of any legal hassle are completely zero. However (even if you're just creating a single T-shirt) using an image from one of the famously litigious companies (such as Disney, McDonalds, Warner or Sony) would be an extremely silly thing to do!

Chris

[dyli795]

thankyou for that, i just wanted to put the image of a dead rap star on the tshirt. How do the likes of Primark and market stalls get away with printing tshirts with famous bands and artists on? surely Primark doesn't ask for 'the doors' permission to use their band name on a tshirt?

[Buenchico]

Copyright only applies to 'original works', not to names.

If a name hasn't been registered as a trade mark it can be used by anyone as long as no 'passing off' as being 'official' merchandise is involved:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy.htm

Chris

[dyli795]

thankyou for going to the trouble, i think i'll be safe to make my tshirt thanks to your information. many thanks