Can I make Sesame Street characters out of GP for an upcoming birthday cake? I seem to recall that this is a debated topic, but I'm not certain what the verdict is. Is this OK or not? Does it make a difference if the cake is a gift?

TIA!

I am not the legal expert, but from what I have read, it is ok to make the figures for personal use, but unless you have a license from the company to copy their characters, you can not legally make them and sell them.

BTW, I just took a look at your gallery. You do very nice work!

If the cake is a gift and you are not charging anything then it isn't an issue.

If this is a paid order, then you can't reproduce them in any form, legally.

Have you ever read the little blurb at the beginning of movies that talks about copyright infringement.... it says "including infringement without monetary gain" so I'm not 100% sure that the "gift" option is legal either.

My theroy is to buy the toy and set it on the cake but I'm not really good at characters anyways. (The child also gets the toy!)

I just made a Land Before Time cake for a friend...but she paid me for it. Yeah, I'm sure I'm infringing but I think a lot of people do it. If I had a shop I wouldn't be advertising it and I wouldn't post it on my website. As long as you don't flaunt it I don't think the registered copyright owner is going to start any trouble.

I'm a published illustrator and if someone took one of my characters (say Superdog, for argument's sake) I would personally be flattered and I don't think my publisher would be bothered by it at all. If you had Superdog sitting in your shop window or posted on your website he would likely give you a call and want you to remove it or pay him royalties.

It's a cake. It's going to be eaten and it's not going to be resold or widly distributed. It's not like copying a drawing or a story and selling it as your own.