Ok to use someone else’s picture vastly shrunk?

[Jellicoe]

I have a scene where the main character is in his room and he is a typical anime/gamer person. I took pictures of well known anime and games and shrunk them down until they are about 1 tile to use as posters for his room. Still recognizable as say, Asuka from evangelion but very fuzzy. Is this ok? Do I have plausible deniability here? Would like to use this for a commercial game one day.

Thanks!

 

[Andar]

from a legal point, no - you'll need a licence to edit and use someone else' work or you're breaking their copyright.
that has nothing to do with plausible deniability at all, and if it is still recognizable as specific characters then it could always be targeted with a cpyright or trademark infringement, especially if you're going commercial.
And if you ignore IP rights while going commercial, that could harm your reputation a lot and lead to less sales.

that said, if it has nothing to do with the rest of the game and is that small, then you have a good chance that no one who can do something about it will see it.

I still suggest replace it with shrunk posters of general anime works that are free of IP-rights, you should be able to find such works in the creative commons archives around the internet.

 

[Jellicoe]

from a legal point, no - you'll need a licence to edit and use someone else' work or you're breaking their copyright.
that has nothing to do with plausible deniability at all, and if it is still recognizable as specific characters then it could always be targeted with a cpyright or trademark infringement, especially if you're going commercial.
And if you ignore IP rights while going commercial, that could harm your reputation a lot and lead to less sales.

that said, if it has nothing to do with the rest of the game and is that small, then you have a good chance that no one who can do something about it will see it.

I still suggest replace it with shrunk posters of general anime works that are free of IP-rights, you should be able to find such works in the creative commons archives around the internet.

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess my thought would be how is this different than a movie where they have posters in the background or a person as a t-shirt with a real logo or driving a car with a recognizable car logo. Surely in a film set in the city commercial logos and movie posters etc are everywhere. All I am doing is recreating a scene of a typical guys room. Thanks.

 

[bgillisp]

The thing is, they got permission for that. For example, ET had to get permission to use the candy they used in that movie, and they were actually turned down by the first one they asked (M and M) so they went with Recess Pieces, which did give permission.

In fact, most of those logos are paid advertising, where the company paid to have the logo put in as they want to be seen.

 

[Jellicoe]

I was reading this:

https://nofilmschool.com/2015/02/entertainment-lawyer-donaldson-callif-film-courage-logo-trademark

It seems the reason logos are blurred in movies is because movies don’t want to give free advertising while having other companies pay for spots. What do you think?

 

[bgillisp]

You'd need a lawyer's advise to say more. But all we can say is don't do it, as they usually get permission or it was paid advertising by that company for the spot.

Also keep in mind that you are legally bound to follow the law, regardless of what the internet tells you. So really the only way to be sure is to either not use them or consult a lawyer. Anything else is risky.

 

[Andar]

how is this different than a movie where they have posters in the background or a person as a t-shirt with a real logo or driving a car with a recognizable car logo.

additionally, if you look very carefull behind the companies you will see that the movie companies often use references to things they already own.
They can easily use posters for movies that were made by the same company without payment because they already own the licences.

Or another reason why there are so many marvel movies out there is because the comic company "Marvel" has been owned by that movie studio for decades, so they don't have to pay inflated licence costs to a different company.

 

[Milennin]

For a free release, you could get away with it no problems, unless your game got popular and widely distributed somehow. For commercial release, no. Play it safe and use images you have the rights to use.

 

[Grunwave]

Well, since you took the photo yourself you are halfway there. You probably will not get through the other half though.

Here is a decent article covering your situation: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclop...could-violate-copyright-or-trademark-law.html

You could always contact the company and ask permission =)