I recently learned about the copyright law as far as not recreating the characters (elmo, hello kitty, spongebob, etc) as models/faces on the cakes. So I have since stopped those. What irks me is that I came across a business today that has a store front, and their gallery has photos of cakes with these types of characters on them! This is what makes conversations with potential clients so difficult. They want this type of thing because they see others do it, but I don't feel like getting fined for it. I'm just a little home cottage food business, but come on...
Hi
I know what you mean bc i have seen the same thing BUT, I think that some business' probably pay a fee of some sort to the copyright owners to use there images. I could be wrongg but thats what I think. Maybe someone with astorefront business can chime in on this post to help others understand
If they use the edible images or character items available from companyies like decopac they're paying for the right.
You can even get permission for some but that's hard to do and the big guys Disney, etc don't want to give you permission. Like you they may not even know that it's illegal.
Bummer, I didn't realize this topic was about the same thing I was posting about. From what I understand, the decopac cakes have to be decorated exactly the way they are shown on the website using those toys. And those are all sheet cakes like you see in a grocery store.
This is not the same thing that other bakeries in my area are doing. They are flat out recreating characters, logos etc from fondant or making their own edible images. I can almost guarantee they do not have permission or are they paying thousands of dollars in licensing fees to MLB teams, Nickelodeon, Disney, etc to make these. And the thing is customers think since they do them that they must have some type of licensing agreement. I clearly state on my website what I can and can't do and that other bakeries do this illegally. But no one ever reads that...
Don't want to sound ignorant or something but... I'm new in the CC and not from the states...
I know about the copyrights but have to say that here everyone (and I really mean everyone) does this characters, even in pastry schools... So my question is, is this specific law valid only in the USA?
And the other thing I found odd since I noticed quite a lot of topics about the copyrights, is that in that case also some of the CC competitions include only these kind of cakes...?
Well you can MAKE these cakes you just can't SELL them. I have cakes in my pics that are probably copyrighted too but these are birthday cakes that I have made for my grandkids birthday's. You can't take any money for these cakes ...not even a donation or just supplies...but there is ALWAYS going to be people who push the envelope on these things. Ignorance is bliss and many of these people are just plain ignorant of the law.
When people/businesses break the law it makes is soooo very hard on those of us who won't
CakeRN, while I totally understand your point about ignorance being bliss, unfortunately, any attorney will tell you that ignorance of the law is now defense to wrongdoing... Even if they are ignorant, they receive the same penalties that a person who is fully aware of and just ignores these laws would get.
From what I've read you are not even allowed to replicate their characters design even when you are making it for your own consumption (i.e for your child's bday), as they want you to purchase their licensed toppers and decopacs and pans for that, and also to protect their rights from having others producing any replications of their characters.
I believe I read this from Jason's posts in many threads like this one.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%