Prints Hubbub Update
Apr. 19th, 2012 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marina_bonomiHubby's contact in Fantasy Flight Games asked their legal department about Zazzle's 'infringment of copyright' claims, the results are in:
It appears that HBO owns ALL rights to 'A Game of Ice and Fire' merchandising, no matter what. Fantasy Flight's products are protected but, even though they have a pre-existing license, own the art and granted artists the right to sell prints of the commissioned art in their contracts...
...if the artists actually do so they are in breach of HBO rights.
Unless they remove any reference to the IP in the titles and blurbs, for instance turning 'so and so' named character into 'knight'.
Honestly for a split second I thought it was a joke, it feels like we have landed in Kafka-land
It appears that HBO owns ALL rights to 'A Game of Ice and Fire' merchandising, no matter what. Fantasy Flight's products are protected but, even though they have a pre-existing license, own the art and granted artists the right to sell prints of the commissioned art in their contracts...
...if the artists actually do so they are in breach of HBO rights.
Unless they remove any reference to the IP in the titles and blurbs, for instance turning 'so and so' named character into 'knight'.
Honestly for a split second I thought it was a joke, it feels like we have landed in Kafka-land
