th31d10t

I am just starting out with a sublimation business. Currently I only have supplies for making coffe cups but I was wondering about graphics because I am thinking about expanding in the near future to more products especially since it is starting to warm up and people tend not to drink as much coffe when its warm. How do I know if I can legally use graphics that are either downloaded from the internet or given to me by a customer to use? I know that copyright laws can be kinda tricky.

 

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nycmerch

If you are downloading from a subscription site like Clipart.com or iclipart.com they have licenses that you agree to when becoming a member and they outline what uses the art can be used for. When downloading images just from the net like from yahoo images etc... its best to assume they are all copyrighted. Someone created it... and just because they are online does not give you license to download or copy it and use it to put on a meduim such as t-shirts or mugs to make a profit. I would suggest you ALWAYS contact the website of where you found the image and ask if they own the rights and if they will grant you rights. A printer down the road from me was sued by disney because someone found a mickey mouse logo and he printed up shirts with mickey and some family names like Jonesy Family Vacation 2008 Disney World etc. Disney ended up suing him for a pretty nice chuck of chnage form what I heard. So now he makes sure he never downloads anything and if he does he makes sure its a paid site.

No one does art work for free. With that in mind... be careful.

 

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th31d10t

Do you by any chance know of a way to track down an original artist for something that is posted in many different places on the web. I have some graphics that pertain to my job in the Air Force that I have new clue where to look for the actual original artist because they have been used by so many different people over the years.

 

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