AWKWARD ZOMBIE

IS IT FINALLY TIME TO SEE MARK, RON AND LARS?

I'm pretty sure a thread about this must have existed before but I searched. I'm sorry if I'm being redundant.

Because Nintendo gives negative fucks

Nintendo gives large amount of fucks but they probably won't even notice this. And something about parodies or so.

Katie's book is considered parody, which means there is no copyright issue (in the US). A few years ago people asked her if she was willing to make a book, and she knew she could invoke parody and avoid any legal trouble, but she replied she still felt bad about making cheddar out of other people's characters and stuff. Since then she has met many other comic artists in cons and I guess they made her change her mind.

Yeah it's called Fair Use. If it's for parodical purposes (or I think educational falls under it too?) then you can use copyrighted material. It's the same reason why The Nostalgia Critic can do what he does and the Daily Show can show clips from news reports etc.

alright, cool, thanks

MAKE ME LOOK BAD WHY DON'T YOU

For shame, Katie.
Shaaaaaame.

I so badly want to put everybody straight on the legal issues of Katie's book thing here but it's kinda like locking the gate after the horse has bolted now.

Irregardless, there are copyright issues here, but if Nintendo or any other company would deign to spend their time and cheddar taking on Katie and her small-time lawsuit-making book-printing operation (highly unlikely) it would most likely err more on the side of Intellectual Property law (IP) - because a lot of the comics in the book make use of characters straight out of Nintendo's character portfolio - meaning it could be argued that Katie is selling the book off of the back of the popularity of Nintendo's characters - not off of the stories contained within the comics (and tbh a lot of the comics only really illustrate what goes on in the games anyway - the Lucario comic as a prime example)

So the short and the smooth of it all that Katie IS breaking intellectual property laws but most likely will get away with it because Nintendo and/or other IP owners wouldn't waste their time on dealing with her making this book.

Still, I would rather people didn't abuse copyright and IP - so don't do it kids - Katie's example here is really not a good one to follow.


And don't use the word 'parody' so loosely; 'Dark Helmet' is a parody of 'Darth Vader'; 'Wreck-It Ralph' is a parody of 'Donkey Kong'. Drawing a company's unmodified IP characters in unusual settings does not a parody make.

Nice.

IP deals with a character's likeness (appearance) more than anything though.


I'd just advise people not to use Katie making this book as a 'green light' to behave similarly.

Even so, I'd state that the vast majority of parodies are thinly veiled anyways. Making Mario blue and renaming him "Lario" seems more like you're trying to get away with doing this by changing it juuuuuust enough to get you out of legal hot water.

And it's up to the individuals whether they want to do something like this. We've gotten into this subject repeatedly, and while you're most certainly entitled to your opinion, there always seems to be a hook of "but personally I find the act repulsive", and comes across much more of condescension for such an act rather than agreeing to disagree on personal values/ideals.

So, I wouldn't exactly throw Katie under the bus due to not liking it. Yes, your points of her breaking IP law is most definitely correct, but the added notion that she's an example of what not to do is pretty bad and opens up the ability for people to do the same to you for personal opinion dissonance.

Oh. Hahaha! No - I didn't mean to imply that doing this makes Katie a horrible, horrible, evil person (much akin to iron-fisted dictators of lesser-known equatorial countries).

I just meant to advise people to not flout copyright or IP laws - for their own sake.

As far as I'm aware you're even allowed to use screenshots/videoclips of the actual thing as parody. See TGWTG. So drawing your own versions of the characters to make jokes about them should be no issue. MAD magazine has been doing that for over 50 years.