Copy right question:toon creators please step in
 

Recently we have decided to create a toon caracter to put on the site. We had it made by someone who have 'some' skills in drawing, although we needed references to do the drawing. We looked up a site that some of you might know : pinuptoons.com. very great artist btw. now, we did end up with a drawing based on those other drawing but that is unique in its way, it is not a COPY of one of the drawing but a transformed version based on one of the sketches displayed on his site.

My question is; can you 'copy' the basic features of a drawing and transform to rest so it doesnt end up the same creation. Can this get us in trouble to then use this image if we can tell that the style is similar or the same as this artist?

Anyone knows?bump.

You almost need to do a side by side comparison to see if there are enough differences. Of course I'am not a lawyer so take that for what its worth...0

i love that guy's work - i contacted him a couple of years ago asking him for a quote on a toon - he wasn't interested.

artists styles get copied all the time - as long as the drawing isn't an exact copy/duplicate i don't think you have any legal problems.

let's see the drawing your artist did in that style.

bump for an answer...!

Okay so here is the drawing that was 'based on' :

http://www.pinuptoons.com/Galleries/Sketches/2.htm

And if you just go right to www.livecamnetwork.com you will see the 'other version'. Ofcourse not 'as good' as the guy's work but i think it looks okay.

Bump for you to take a look at both drawings above :)

no worries - those two drawings are different - different poses, different hair - cartoon styles can't be copyrighted. i've seen other artists who have very similar style to that guys - he might not be so original himself.

this guy is my favorite http://www.shaneglines.net i always ask cartoonists if they can copy his style.

Looks different enough.

it doesn't look "confusingly similar" imho

You wont get sued, His is good yours is not (no offence) they look nothing alike.

I don't see anything really similar there... of course, I'm no lawyer but I'd find it really hard for someone to claim infringement on that (umm, unless they see this thread!)

:winkwink:

The question wasnt about the quality of the drawing but the similarity. Ofcourse it isnt as good as his, we didnt hire an artist to do it. But thanks for bitching anyway. :)

they look different enough to me...........

I think you're ok they are not even close to looking the same. But it's a moot point to ask now seeing as how you already used it. The key is to ask before you use it...

In fact it would be my boss's problem, he didnt seem to have asked himself the question and used the drawing right away. If it wouldve been me i wouldve check first. Better later then never. Besides, he also wants to have more in other poses elsewhere on the site.

the question is why would you try to copy someone when there are so many talented artists on here, who could have created an amazing and unique work of art for you... AND cheaply too!

Dont worry you wont get in trouble. You could if the artist cared enough to sue you, but he wont for something so trivial, even though with server logs he could be checking out this referring page confessing the copy.