Copyright stuff just confuses me, so sorry if this seems like a no-brainer.

I have a client wanting a 3-D bust of the main alien girl from Avatar. I think I already know the answer on this, but wanted to double check. Would doing that be a copyright infringement?

Thanks!

Yes, if it is done for compensation (Payment by money or in-kind)

That's what I thought. I am going to just make a general rule that no character, no matter what form it is, is legal, so I'll turn down anything like that. Thanks for your help!

ah, so I was told that you could characters as long as the name wasn't on them. like, you could do a thomas the train, but couldn't call it that. it would have to be called "blue train" or something generic. was I misinformed????

how do you get the permission to do it...i know grocery store bakeries have it????

Yes you were misinformed. You can't change the name or a small detail and pretend that it isn't the orignal character.

Grocery stores use edible images or plastic figures that the companies liscensed out to make. They have control of that the final product looks like and they make money off it.

You can not recreate an image in any way put it on a cake and sell it, legally. This includes home made edible images, using the Wilton cake pans, color flow transfers, FBCTs, chocolate transfers, modeling the figure or sculpting it out of cake, and any other way you can think of doing it.

You can always contact the company behind the image for permission, but some like Disney are going to say no no matter what.

oh no! looks like a made a few boo-boos. I see so many cakes on here that are characters..sesame street, thomas, etc. guess those are all illegal, huh. guess I'll have a make some calls about upcoming cakes. what about making a cake and using toys on it, that should be ok right?

My rule (and this is probably even considered wrong by the companies) is that I will make a generic base cake, and if the parent chooses to buy a toy to put on top, then so be it. For example, I was asked to make a Spiderman cake. I made a round cake with the spiderweb design, and the parents bought a Spiderman toy for the top. The part I made was not copyrighted, but the toy was. Since the toy was put on after delivery, I don't consider that an infringement. If I had made Spiderman or any impression of him, or of a critical piece of him, that would be illegal.

so this is shady, but could a commercial bakery give those cakes away for free and charge for a sheet cake or something like that? Like "free 3D thomas-like " with purchase of sheet cake? is that blurring the line too much?