Copyright question regarding recreating characters from movies

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Hello, I’m relatively new to the world of 3D modelling and am looking forward to exploring further. A question popped up in my head while I was watching some tutorials.

Am I allowed to recreate a character from a movie? I don’t have a comprehensive knowledge on copyright but I know the basics that you are not allowed to distribute, publish or sell works created by someone else by your own name and other similar things. But what I’m planning to do is find reference images of the character I had in mind, recreate it in Blender and then upload the final outcome as an image online for others to see. I’m not planning to sell it or make money out of it. I want to recreate it because it sounds like a fun and challenging thing for me to do as a begineer.

If any of you know something regarding this, that’ll be helpful. I just like the idea of sharing my progress online but I need to know the rules and risks first. :smiley:

2

I’d say that it basically falls under the same category as drawing fanart or writing fanfiction, something which plenty of people already do and put up on the internet. Even here on these forums, you can occasionally see some 3d fan models posted. As long as you don’t sell or make money off it like you said, there shouldn’t really be a problem.

Disclaimer: Not a lawyer, take advice off the internet with caution and do some research.

3

That makes sense. I guess I’ll be doing further research just in case but you already pretty much answered my question. Looking forward to start 3D modelling some characters!

4

From my own research (and what I remember; I’m no expert),

Using for educational purposes might be okay. Tho I’m thinking a school essay with bibliography; I honestly don’t know where your purpose would fit and if it’s technically okay or not.

fanfiction technically isn’t allowed, even if you’re doing it for free! (I think).

Some people might not care, and even put fan fiction on their office fridge! (e.g. Futurama)
BUT some DO care. Maybe your fanfic goes against what the creator had in mind for the character.

Safest bet is to get written permission from whoever owns the copyright, trademark, whatever-other-relevant-intellectual-property.
And make sure it’s the owner, which might not be the same as the creator…?

Or wear a funny hat, take a pic, and use that as your reference.
May not be the character you had in mind, but it’s safe and you don’t have to wait for a response.
Also, funny hats are funny.

Good luck!

Other, possibly irrelevant but maybe relevant stuff:
P.S. Trademark is different from copyright, but it’s also relevant. E.g. Frankenstein’s monster is public domain (i.e. anyone can use him!).
BUT once you put bolts on each side of his neck, square head, etc., you’re infringing on someone’s trademark(I think Universal Studio’s)!
Cuz even tho they don’t own Frankenstein’s monster, they DO own their interpretation of him.

Also, the Holy Bible is public domain, BUT certain translations are NOT!
Similar thing applies to music. They might not own some old Beethoven song, but they DO own their recording of it!

Grey-areas might also exist. e.g. if it’s not R2D2, but it looks enough like R2D2 that it confuses people and they say, “Oh look! It’s R2D2!” then… even if you win in court, you don’t wanna go to court at all. It’s a hassle, hits your company’s reputation–wait. I think I’m going off topic here. Unless you have bigger dreams…?

But who cares? Some do. If you’re small, they might not.

Tho, I once read about McDonald’s going after what looked like a small burger joint. Oh dear.

Conclusion: safest bet is to get written permission.
Or take a pic of yourself wearing a funny hat and use that as reference :stuck_out_tongue:

5

In copyright law (in the US), this concept is generally referred to as Fair Use.

(The US Copyright office offers other useful pages such as this one . . .)

Although “I Am Not A Lawyer,™” I’d say that the bright-line rule here might be: “are you doing anything that might seriously attract a copyright-owner’s [lawyers’ …] attention?”

If you are simply creating a rendition of “a well-known (say …) Disney Princess®,” merely for the non-commercial purpose of strengthening your own portfolio, then I darsay that “The Mouse®” has been given no serious reason to Fear You.

However, I always like to see these artists formally acknowledge these things, e.g. with a fairly-inconspicuous tag-line on a leading image that says, say: “Intended as Fair Use of ‘licenseable characters ©Disney.’” With any luck at all, these “respectful nods in the proper directions” will be judged sufficient without further comment by the respective Goons.

And it so happens that “such nods” might be far more important than you realize!

Perhaps the one thing that copyright-owners fear most is the so-called Doctrine of Laches, which basically suggests that, “unless you pro-actively move to enforce your rights every time they might possibly have been breached, you run the risk of losing those rights, forever.” They fear the potential conclusion, by any Court anywhere, that their once-proprietary rights have fallen into “the public domain.”

Thus, by merely adding the slightest bit of “propietary markings” to your usage of their work – even if you are quite sure that you really shouldn’t have to – you might succeed in keeping those lawyers quiet for yet another day. “Demonstrate, by whatever subtle-but-effective means necessary that you did not :eek: use this character ‘because you considered it to [already] be In The Public Domain.’” Demonstrate somehow that, indeed, you were aware of the existence of a proprietary claim.

As the law is written: “They really don’t so much give-a-damn that you may have actually violated their proprietary rights (if it did not seriously cost them money …), as they are that you might succeed in somehow successfully make the case that you did not believe that such rights might [still …] have existed.”

As writer’s magazines are still so quick to point out, many once-propietary trademarks have died this way: “Escalator,” “Elevator,” “Dry Ice …”

6

If you want to use copyrighted models, you must modify the model to the point that it’s just slightly similar to the original model. Add extra features, change the color and mix other concepts with it. You can then use it on your project. See how Gameloft make games that are very similar to big tittle games such as Call of Duty and Halo. Gameloft made Modern Combat and NOVA. NoVA is very similar to Halo but Gameloft modified the Halo concept and added another concept and mixed the two. That is called innovation. I too do it with my products and they sell without any issues.

7

Im not sure OP’s intentuin would bebfair use (at least at first gpance at the US deifnition).

Though as sundialsvc4 said (I think), ib rwl life, they might not care.

Then again, I wouldn’t put it up on YouTube even if it’s not to make money cuz I think I read that Nintendo didn’t like people using Nintendo game footage on their YouTube videos. I dunno if these people were trying to make money or just putting up vids for fun. But yeah.

Like Pwet said, u can gi for changing the model enough so that it’s no longer the same thing. Which can be fun, why not?

Tho i totally understand if u just wanna make it exactly the same for both simplicity’s sake and fun/honouring their work.

Tho personally id go on the safe side.

8

^^The legality of that might be somewhat questionable, at least in the US. Borrowing a generic idea and improving upon it like Nova taking the genre of first person shooters and making their own version is fine, but actually ripping out a game model and using it without permission sounds wrong. The models are a product of the company’s studios, and therefore should fall under the copyright of the company. That’s not called “innovation”, that sounds like plagiarism. (Again, not a lawyer)

For example, if you’re in the business of manufacturing cars, it’s fine to look at what competitors are currently out in the market and also fine to analyze how the competitors build their cars and get them to work. However, it’s not fine if you just buy a car from Toyota or something, just slap a few extra parts on it and change its color, and resell it under your company’s brand name.

Why not make it from scratch, or at the very least, reuse your own models from past projects?

9

The majority of people who do Let’s Play channels actually do make money off of playing the games they are showing (so technically, they really were making a lot of money off of Nintendo’s content). It’s the same with fan games, there’s a debate over whether it’s legal to post fan games on sites with ads (as their presence could imply that the site is making money off copyrighted content).

In any case, the openness of companies to use their trademarked characters in fan works really varies. Some will continually crack down on their use while other companies encourage their creation (so long as they’re not commercial).

So yes, there’s a lot of debate over legality as well as a number of grey areas, some of which is so confusing that even a lawyer may only be of limited help.