# Services with Licenses



## balderdashery (Jun 14, 2013)

Hello, 

I am a new user making a second attempt at selling t-shirt designs.

I'm hoping to expand my stock by adding redrawn popular characters.

However, as you probably already know, it is generally frowned upon to sell copyrighted characters.

So I was looking for companies that print-on-demand (not the kind you by in bulk and sell yourself, but something similar to Redbubble or Spreadshirt) but ALSO have licenses to sell items based on pop culture and copyrighted designs.

Do these exist? I'm looking along the lines of cartoon shows, geeky shows, movies and iPod games. Sites have these, but their not necessarily in the rights to do it.


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

CafePress has a licensing deal with Star Wars that allows fan created art (or at least the did a few years ago). That's the only one I know of. It's not going to be common because the IP owners of characters tend to protect the integrity of the characters. When they license the character out, they supply approved artwork to the licensee. They also require artwork to be approved prior to production. There is very little leeway to redraw the character the way you want. So I think it would be considered rare for characters to get licensed out to print-on-demand services. It's a slippery slope where the IP owner would be giving up a lot of control over the integrity of the character.


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## balderdashery (Jun 14, 2013)

Thanks for your reply.

Hmm, it's interesting that they have one for Star Wars, though I'm not looking for that one in particular.

Although if that's what sells...

Still, I've done more research and it just doesn't appear that there is much hope, for the reasons you described.

Since I'm just trying to earn some pocket change off of drawings I already make for fun, instead of making a business, I might just have to work harder on original work or find pop culture ideas that are in the public domain.

I've got some Alice in Wonderland designs because of that. It's not too shabby but certainly won't sell as much a popular cartoon character. Oh well. As a character designer I'd much rather be disappointed in this than sell out someone else's ideas for my own gain.

I'll keep this thread open nonetheless and cross my fingers.


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