# Copyright Laws, how did the superman S appear on the t-shirt?



## derekw10 (Jul 2, 2012)

Hi all
I have never designed a t shirt before and was wondering if anyone can help me out?


The design I am going to use is from a movie, and I will have to use images from the movie to print on to the t-shirt.


I want to know how can I do this?


I have seen the superman S on t-shirts and Guns and roses logos etc etc but how do you go about doing this without breaking copyright laws, and without going to the company and them just steeling your idea?


Can anyone point me in the right direction?


Derek


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

derekw10 said:


> Hi all
> I have never designed a t shirt before and was wondering if anyone can help me out?
> 
> 
> ...


You need to approach the licensee in your region. It's generally quite expensive and the rights holders won't allow their characters etc. to be used in any way you fancy, there are quite strict guidelines.
If you want to get involved in any of this:
Superman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
feel free!


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

Dave is correct. You need to contact the IP owner and negotiate a merchandise license. Expect it to be expensive and challenging. But if you have legit production and distribution capabilities, it is certainly possible.

A lot of what you see in the retail market is licensed and therefore legal.

The stuff that isn't licensed is a violation of trademarks and copyrights. The designers and sellers of those shirts are at risk to be sued. Some get caught, some don't. But there is nothing special they are doing to prevent getting caught.

If you feel that your design falls under fair use or parody law, then you can try using that defense in court if you ever get sued for infringement. But that can be expensive and challenging too. The legal way to do it is to negotiate a license. Anything else would carry some level of risk. So it really depends on whether the reward is worth the risk.


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