are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
My daughter is a great artist and draws Anime characters freehand(no tracing). Of course, she bases it on characters in her books. We scanned one in and put it on a t-shirt and she wears it to school. Now, her friends want to buy shirts. I'm thinking no b/c of copywright laws. Is this correct or is it okay b/c she did it by hand? Also, all those manga characters look alike to me anyway.
Any thoughts?
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
I know my Aunt lives there and my sister graduated from Converse. Actually I live just outside of Chucktown in Goose Creek, but I usually just say I'm from Charleston.....lol.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
That's a tricky question (I'm an anime fan myself and have gone and sold fanworks at a few conventions).
If you plan on setting up a full-blown business, you have to go your own route, own characters, et cetera. The anime style itself is not copyrighted (durh), but the likeness of characters is. For example, if her stuff is easily identfiable as the character Inuyasha, that's copyright infringement, even if she has done some 'artistic license' changes to it. If you can look at it and see it as just a cool design and cool character, not affiliated to any other game, anime, or manga other than her own creation, you guys are good to go.
However, there are some very grey exceptions. It's not uncommon to see fan art of established characters sold at conventions, including fan art on posters, shirts, stickers, buttons, fan-made comics (doujinshi) et cetera. Many creators and publishers tend to turn a blind eye to these fan-made creations at conventions, as they see it as free publicity. For big titles like Fullmetal Alchemist, these fan-made products are such a small production that it certainly won't hurt their sales and the creator (who is one heck of a lady) and bigwigs want to foster a stronger fanbase. Many conventions uphold the whole 'it's okay as long as you don't trace it' policy, and you'll see lots of prints and sketches of original art of characters from popular series. Furthermore, you'll see many fan artists accept small commissions year-round (outside of the convention setting) via paypal for drawings of established characters.
However, that doesn't mean these fan productions won't come under fire. There have been a few cases of fan-comic publishers getting 'too big' and recieving a nice, polite letter from the brand's lawyers. Anne Rice and Brian Jaques have both gone after fanfiction writers for copyright infringement. Mercedes Lackey, however, is more-or-less okay with fanfiction but she refuses to read it because of the potential lawsuit if she decides to write something that has been established before in the fanfiction community, last I heard. J.K. Rowling is okay with Harry Potter fanfiction as long as it has no adult content, and online communities have been shut down by her lawyers because of this.
Like I said, it's a very grey area. Personally, I make sure my stuff is 100% original. I make sure nothing I draw looks anything like an established title's characters, but I do draw stuff which appeals to the market I'm in. I and may do sketches of established characters if I have the time while I'm manning my table, but these sketches don't make it to my portfolio and they don't become reproduced merchandise I can sell in any kind of quantity.
Like I said, in the anime/manga fandom, it's a totally foggy, grey area. If it's not identifiable as a character from another title, you're good to go as far as you want with it.
If it IS identfiable as an established character, I think if it's just small enough that you're printing a few shirts for some of her friends, it won't be a problem. If you plan on selling at conventions, that might not be a problem either. If it gets too big, then it might be a problem. Make sure it's original art and it doesn't look like brand merchandise, I think you'll be okay if you really want to do this. Like I said, it really depends on what the image is based on and who owns the original title. Best thing is to do your research, make sure it's either original work or a character from a title who's okay with fanworks, and go from there.
I've seen people do more. Like whole publishing businesses in someone's apartment for fan-made comics going on for years and years, shipping their stuff all over the world. Yes, technically it's illegal, but few choose to pursue the legalities because it's free publicity and making their fans happy means more to them. It's possibly a very different creative culture than what many of us are used to, and I think it's awesome.
Whether or not to play it on the safe side is up to you guys, I just wanted to let you know people do stuff like this all the time with great success.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
Thanks that was very helpful. My daughter is really into fanfiction as well. You know when it comes to anime stuff, it's hard to find merchandise. This is a huge market. Usually, I can hardly get down the isle in the bookstore due to all the kids standing around reading.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
Hah, I get her on that one. Fanfiction is an addictive hobby, one I'm tempted to go into now and then even if I'm so insane busy these days.
I'm one of those people at the bookstore, LOL. I just try to stay out of the way and buy the manga when I can. Personally I think the quality of production has gone down now that manga has become super-popular. Back in the day, 80% of the titles out there were great. Now...not so much. But that there's fandom talk, and this is t-shirtforums.com!
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
I would think that selling images of specific anime characters, either on a t-shirt or a picture in a frame, would have the same effect as selling an unlicensed image of Mickey Mouse; the copyright holder would be after you to stop and claim damages etc. Your daughter sounds quite talented so it shouldn't be a stretch for her to create her own characters, unique to her and then there would be no problem.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
I'm former otaku (haven't been into anime clubs or to AX or anything for five years), but was quite curious how the whole copyrighting thing works when something hasn't been licensed yet in America. Is it legal to sell up until a company claims license on it?
I never heard of anyone being busted for fansubs on VHS back in the day, unless they were selling licensed shows. Most of em didn't even really "sell", but would charge for the tape (if you didn't send your own) and the cost to ship it back, they may have made some chump change off the deal. Anyway, just tossing it out there.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
what about all those cafepress, zazzle, etc shops that sell tshirts with elements from super mario bros on them? like the mushroom, star, etc etc. They most likely didn't get permission from the multimillion dollar corporation Nintendo.
Re: are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn?
Yes, and they will get into trouble if Nintendo etc decides to take action.
It's also possible that CP and the other PODs didn't catch that as they've too much censoring to do.
This is a discussion about are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn? that was posted in the General T-Shirt Selling Discussion section of the forums.
are anime characters copyrighted - even if they are hand drawn? 
Personally I think the quality of production has gone down now that manga has become super-popular. Back in the day, 80% of the titles out there were great. Now...not so much. But that there's fandom talk, and this is t-shirtforums.com! 
