ACan anyone give me a quick summary I copyright laws and why not to make cakes with copyrighted Disney characters? I have a friend that asked and I can't think of how to explain it to her.

something like 'disney has and will sue your a$$ off'

they are fierce about thier copyrights

still lots of businesses do it

http://info.legalzoom.com/legal-use-disney-characters-21231.html

wow disney gets sued for copyright infringing too

interesting google subject

Well, for me, the simplest way to explain it is that Disney paid the money to design the characters, so they "own" them and the rights to them. If someone else wants to make money off of Disney's investment, then they have to ask--and PAY--for that right, if Disney agrees to it. 

Disney doesn't want people to profit off of them OR to do a poor job representing Disney products OR to have someone think that an authorized copy was somehow approved by Disney.  They take it very seriously.

If you make a cake to provide a background for purchased Disney toys, that's OK because Disney gets their $ from the toys--and without the toys, the cake isn't recognizable as representing only Disney.

Rae

geez look what i found

whoa gumpy dwarf

here's happy little 'whistle -blow while you work'

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071203170200AArrBeD

do not cross this chick

http://www.disneybaby.com/blog/baby-girl-shower-cupcakes/#slide10

Then you see sites like this, which is clearly a Disney owned site. Check out the cupcakes being discussed. 

Now, I'm sure that's just a blogger contributing to the site, but it's still under the umbrella of Disney. Have the lawyers *not* seen it?

And this one too: http://www.disneybaby.com/blog/10-amazing-1st-birthday-cakes/

There is an explanation on the Wilton site:  Disney permits Wilton to make character pans for HOME baking use NOT commercial sales.

Your friend can buy the pan (secondhand on ebay) and bake the cake in it.  That way she has covered her a$$ and her kids can have the character cake.

Here in Canada they rent those character pans...again it's the CAKE that cannot be sold.