Can I sell a marquee

[bbigger]

After making a marquee for a friend:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=12572

I have been inundated with people wanting a copy of the marquee:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=13;action=display;threadid=12011

and they are willing to pay $$$ for it.

My question: is the legal? I must have had like 30 people email me about. Some want as is, others want a few added or subtracted.

I see a cash cow, but legality?

thanks for your help in advance.

[mahuti]

No.

UNLESS, you had permission from Marvel, Capcom, Fox,etc all the characters you have in there.

You would also need a business permit & resellers liscensce, and various other things depending on where you live.

HOWEVER.... many people do this type of stuff... as long as you are not doing it on a massive scale, your chance of being targeted is small. MANY of the providers we use for REPRO marquees & bezels are doing so without permission.

It's at your own risk. From my experience, unless you are really trying to hurt a company they just send a cease and desist (unless they're ready to make a point, and I don't think that is currently the case)

[Harakiri]

I weould sell it for sure!


ANARCHY!  

[zorg]

why don't share it.
just provide the file to people that want it, in charge for us to print it.

 

[mahuti]

Either selling or sharing is still going to be a viloation of copyright.

[patrickl]

How does Frostillicus do this? He advertises on this forum that he can be hired to do work and I think he uses copyrighted materials as well.

In fact don't (almost) all people who contribute to the artwork forum infringe the copyright rules? Allthough I guess asking money for it is a tad worse than creating something for personal use.

[Howard_Casto]

AFAIK frosty makes original artwork.  He doesn't lift anything.


And to answer your question, yes they do.  Doing something illegal and being called on it are two different things.  When you give stuff away the copyright holders are usually very tolerant.  It's when you try to sell it that they sue you.  As the entire internet is guilty of lifting artwork, generally legal action isn't taken unless your doing something really bad.  

[DarkKobold]

I just can't see why you'd feel the need - so many other people on this board give so much, and you have probably used their help and advice. Why don't you feel the need to contribute and add to the scene?

On the other hand, I'll tell you to sell a few on EBay, before some a$$hat takes your design, and does it themself. (Which, is becoming quite common, unfortunately)

[fredster]

Once these graphics are posted, there is no telling what people will do with it.  Anybody will do anything to make a buck.  That's capiatlism.  

You can make a few simpsons tee shirts and sell them, but if you try and make 1000's of them, you are in for a lawsuit.

The spirit of this forum is to promote and support the use of Mame and other emulators to preserve the old arcade / console games.  People get together and use this stuff in their own homes.

When you take the info and make money with it, somebody will want their cut.

Without copyright we wouldn't have had the games in the first place.  People have to be able to make money on the item or they wouldn't invest in it.  

Dead companies are bought up by other companies and the copyrights and intellectual property are bought.  Look at Atari. How many times has Atari died?  Now the "atari" trademark is owned by someone else, and they are selling rights to roms.

[mahuti]

To H_C's point....

To most companies, there is a BIG difference between being a fan, and being a pirate. (except for the RIAA)

[Justin]

Dude, don't sell it.   Just give it away freely.  Imagine if everyone here started charging other for their work?  Whether it is artwork, tips, or ideas... same thing.   Have you seen the number of arcade traces/artwork that have been posted at the mametrix reloaded site?  (currently down).  These are all free contributions, don't be the odd one out.

I spent weeks vector tracing a Centipede bezel (reasonably complex stuff) , and posted it for everyone to enjoy. Since then, I have gotten numerous kudos fro folks from all over the world, and at least 3 other Centipede cab owners are printing their own bezels from my design.  It feels real good when other enjoy and appreciate your hardwork.  No need to get money in exchange.

Plus (responding your original question), selling copyrighted material is ilegal.  Period.  Whether you sell 10 or 1,000!

Just my 2c.
 

[XtraSmiley]

Hey what ever happened with this?  I think it looked awesome and if you are giving it away, I'd like a copy!  I don't think you should sell it, unless you actually provide the item, just the art (after all it's all drawn by someone else, who owns the rights) you should give out freely.  Either way, great job!

[eightbit]

If you created it from scratch then there is absolutely nothing wrong with selling it. I have no problem with people making money on this hobby. I don't think you should resell something that you traced or cut and paste.

Their is an incredible amount of people that freely share and thats great. But without a financial incentive we wouldn't have many of the product options that are available today.

So in my opinion, make it available in appreciation for the people that have helped you along the way.

[SNAAAKE]

Sell the photoshop file ?

 

Now that will be....SAD
You could get rid of the actual marquee if you printed 2 or just wanna sell it for whatever reason.I am sure no one cares about that anyway.

Share the file just like everyone else does(jpg or whatever).
The point of having a site/pics and all that is the help out others with the hobby thats all  

[Generic Eric]

no you can't sell it

trade it for a case of beer or your favorite bottle of booze.  Or venison(deer meat.) haha

[paigeoliver]

Hee hee, guys pretty much 95 percent or more of all repro arcade art available is unlicensed. Actually, the ONLY licensed artwork to my knowledge is the Pac/Galaga stuff available from Twobits.com

The arguement that copyrights somehow helped gaming is sketchy at best. Atari made Pong, and then every gamemaker around made exact copies of it. Yet that is exactly what started the video game revolution.

Whole games were commonly bootlegged from the early 80s to early 90s. Yet those bootlegs really didn't have too much of an effect on the manufacturers. Arcade manufacturers are largely in the business of selling hardware, not software.

Lets imagine that the Williams Vs. Artic court case had gone differently (Williams sued Artic for their bootleg of Defender, and Artic argued that games couldn't be copyrighted because they were different everytime). As far as I know that was the court case that actually held up arcade game copyrights.

Ok, so anyone can copy any game. What would the results be? Easy, I can tell you. The games would have had better protection on them, and that is pretty much it. Sure, the bootlegs would be out there, but how much demand would there be for them 12-18 months after the game came out (and after the original manufacturer stopped carrying them).

Anyway, all of that has little to do with anything. If you want to print your own marquees and sell them, then go for it. But really, you are going to make like what, $5 each profit on maybe 6 of them? Forget it, just upload the file somewhere for others to use.