Lawyers stink

I hope to see your Snoopy and Ziggy Themes appear again soon, especially as you took the precaution of obtaining the rights. As for other theme authors, such as myself, the lawyers e-mail gave a definate shock! Guys, be careful with the copyrights when you're uploading themes!

The guy was just doing his job. It must be next to impossible to hunt down every unauthorized use of Snoopy on the web!

Yes, theme authors do need to be careful and try not to violate the rights of the original artists. Their creations are their "bread and butter" and I think we can all respect that. I'm usually very careful to not violate their rights, but something is bound to fall through the cracks now and then.

Everyone has the right to earn a living from their work (okay, even if it's an estate and not the actual person.) We are a country of laws for a reason.

Actually, Deb, you were correct to remove the themes from your site. If your permissions were granted jointly to you and a company for a specific job, then the permissions lapsed once the project was completed, and your graphics were turned over to the client or company. New licensing permissions would need to be obtained in order for you to continue using the images. (My husband is an attorney who deals with intellectual property)

Sorry! :-(

Actually, SW, under normal circumstances you would be correct. However, in this case the rights to those images that were not used in the client's project were released back to me as part of the contract. Since I incurred the initial cost, that was the part of the agreement. Technically, however, there may be some legal question as to whether or not the client had the proper authority to make that transfer. So, rather than dredge up ancient history, it's better to just not use those images until I obtain the clear rights in my own company's name.

Facinating stuff, really. I've always been interested in this area of law and today's experience has inspired me to want to learn even more.

Deb, I checked with my husband, and you are only part correct. Even if the images were released to you, they would have been licensed for that project only. That is typically the way licensing works. It is very expensive to obtain a blanket license for images like that. If you lok at the contract very closely, you may find this to be the case. If you want to know more, let me know. I will put you in touch with my husband!

Cheers!

SW

I agree, SW. A royalty-free license allow continued use of the image. A rights-managed license is limited to the purpose for which the license was purchased. This is why I said that the client's authority to transfer the rights may not have been vaild. I think we are both saying the same thing.

I appreciate the dialog.

really enjoy your ppc themes - especially the peanuts one. i downloaded the dashboard theme you designed and really only use the wisbar/icbar portion. was wondering if you might have made a "volume" icon to match the "close" and "okay" icons you created for the peanuts theme. i will continue to visit your site and look for your themes on the varied theme sites. thanks for your hard work and thanks for honoring the peanuts characters the way you did.