I had thoguht of a new idea to make heat tranfers of people on shirts, like singers rappers , pictures of maybe things like money and painting around it on the shirt, and I was wondeirng is there any legal issues to that? I see people all the time selling shirts with a screenprinted heat transfer whatever picture of a rapper or someone. I want to be sure I am not going to get sued or anything for doing this. Idk if any of you know of miskeen ( they make handpaintedtees) bt they do pictures of money and stuff and paint around them. Anywwyas can someone give me some help
yes you do need permission from the celebrity.but check this out.i am really good friends with fat joe and a couple of other rappers.and i found out that it is a double edged sword.when big pun died,he asked me to make a couple tees for his people who were going to be in a tribute video.and i consulted with him about doing something like that.and he informed me that most people dont care as long as it was done tastefully.and then he said that it also depends on how much money you are pulling in,he said to me that if you are not pulling in that much paper,your good.but if you venture off into the millions,then you might have a problem with the celebrity trying to sue for a thelft of a likeness.and also the photographer for a stolen copyright.so i suggest you do like all the other guys do and keep it in a cartoon form or a drawing form and you cant be touched whatsoever.that is perfectly legal.but if you use a real pic,then your up **** creek pal.but again - this is a touchy subject becouse lets say that you wanted to use a real picture ? - you would then have to doctor it in some form.but all in all most folks dont care as long as you keep it respectable.but take no chances in this business.its hard to come up - but you can go down quick as hell bro!
peace!
I was wondering becasue thats alot of ppl for them to sue becasue i see that all the time. Bt then again I aint selling millions or nothn but I guess I dont want to take any chances. I mean if I sell 100 like that of diff. people I doubt I will get hunt down bt I get your drift. Also when you say cartoon drawing do you mean like me painting it myself? Becasue I was gonna use the actual pcik an do some art around it. bt idk. Also if I do it with a pick of someone that wanted theire pick on a shirt transferd I cant get in trouble for that right? And thas koo u hooked up wit fat joe I need to get my foot in the door and i thnk it will take off. How did u get to meet him
Last edited by ksroyalty972; October 18th, 2006 at 11:49 PM.
my other question was that how do u do heat transfer on dark colors such as black? do it matter what type of trasnfer paper u use as oppose to doing it on a white tee? Becasue I tried it on white it came out fine then i did it on black bt it came out sh***y. Bt I have seen it done on black tees so I was jsut wondering. There is a guy that does transfers for 8$ a piece I assume he can do it on all colors. Bt i need sum help wit this one
Also if I do it with a pick of someone that wanted theire pick on a shirt transferd I cant get in trouble for that right?
Their pic as in a picture of themselves? Or as in a picture they provide? If it's a picture of themselves you're fine (assuming they own the rights, but that's likely), if it's a picture they provide... you could potentially still get in trouble if you help them print someone else's intellectual property (get them to sign a release, and don't print it if they're obviously lying).
my other question was that how do u do heat transfer on dark colors such as black? do it matter what type of trasnfer paper u use as oppose to doing it on a white tee?
Oh yea well it would be the pick of that person not someone else. But then again I do online orders to so I wont really know bt I have to assume its them or if it wa a gift to someone.
And when you say get them to sig a release for the picture they are giving me? Ok how would I go about that and if they did that does that mean I wouldnt be responsible for getting in truble?
And when you say get them to sig a release for the picture they are giving me? Ok how would I go about that and if they did that does that mean I wouldnt be responsible for getting in truble?
I'm not a lawyer, so I can't be sure. In theory it should help though... if you print a picture of Bugs Bunny on a shirt a court isn't going to accept that you thought the geezer who said he owned the rights did. But if it was a photo of a musician you've never heard of, you can only really believe the customer if they said they owned the photo. I would hope that would protect you from being considered to have published pirate content, but I don't know.
For some reason I assumed you'd be doing this offline, in which case I'd have some simple form the customer can sign (basically make it part of the order form). Online I'd include it in the terms and conditions (i.e. "We don't publish copyrighted material, by submitting material to be printed you agree that you hold the rights to that material and won't hold BlahBlah Inc. responsible should you infringe any intellectual property laws yadda yadda"), for people to click away that they agree to when they place an order.
Ultimately, you'd need to talk to a lawyer to find out what you'd need to do to be covered, because I don't know.
Heat transfer shirts: celebrities 
