So I’m an idiot. I didn’t realize that cakes can be copyrighted & I agreed to do two cakes due in the next two weeks  that are clearly copyrighted. It’s also to late to cancel (one was booked two months ago & another booked the party around my availability to do the cake) 

Ive been reading the rules & I saw something that said if you buy a cake topper from the copyrighted company it’s legal to sell the cake? So if I were to buy a few avengers cake toppers & some fortnight characters & put them on the cakes would that make it ok to sell & post pictures? I’m fuzzy on the rules & I really want to find a way to do these last two cakes before implementing my no copyright policy. I also live in Canada if that makes any difference, not saying copyright doesn’t exist here but I know laws are different in every country 

I would buy the figures BuT do NOT put them on the cake   Sell them separately to the customer   That is how a shop I know of does it after they were “caught “ & fined years ago 

Would I be able to make the cakes as is? The loot llama cake I’m not super concerned about as the photo already looks altered from the actual character, if I don’t add the arrow on the saddle it can probably pass as a “piñata llama cake”. The avengers cake is a whole different story because she wants it exact + two more logos added on

although it's your decision -- those cakes are copyright violations -- I mean who knows if they will act on them -- my best advice is:

1.) don't violate the copyright 

2.)  if you do them do not post them on the world wide web --

thought of something else:

3.) if you do them, decide if you want to firmly explain that this is the last time for anything like this -- and if they would agree to not post online that would be cool too but what parent/kid doesn't want to blow out the internet with birthday pics -- right?

Yeah that’s what I was worried about, even if I don’t post pictures on my platforms that doesn’t mean the mom won’t post them on hers. I also agreed to do the cakes at a discount to get a head start on a portfolio so if I can’t post the pictures then the discount was for nothing. It makes me so upset because I see all of these copyrighted cakes on instagram, i didn’t even realize it was a thing because of how often I would see someone making Disney themed cakes. 

I hear yah -- in my early days of caking in the 70's -- for most bakeries it was a non-issue but started getting real in the later 80's for larger operations -- but as the internet gained ground it all came to a big boiling point -- so... I mean it really does clearly belong to someone else and if they allow infringement they lose their right to claim it exclusively -- big mess -- for me once I caught on through my thick skull it was a no-brainer -- all I had to do was nothing to steer clear of it -- except explain it to people -- but yeah I do wish it was different --

Yet another reason why I wish I was born in the 70’s

well actually you needed to be born in the 50's to do cake in the 70's hahahhahahaha

Even better(X

,,,,,,,,,,I’m not super concerned about as the photo already looks altered from the actual character...........

If a pic of your creation is held up in a court of law and *any one* in the room identifies it as the character it is infrigment  & you can be fined big time :(   I don't know anything about Avengers & their creator so don't know how super strick they might be &/or what signs'decorations are copyrighted......definately the star is not  nor the colors & stripes.  Just how much of the design you can get away with is up in the air on this one.

There are only two ways that I know around copyright laws. The first one, if no money (or services) are exchanged it is not copyright infringement. The only other way you can profit on copyrighted material (other then getting permission or paying the copyright fee) is through parody law. 

Actually, it can be copyright infringement even if no money exchanges hands.  Unless you make it for your own personal use, it's suspect.  Wilton has an arrangement to make the character pans and even those are supposed to be for personal use only.  The best way to do it, if the customer insists on a certain character cake, is to decorate the cake as a backdrop for the plastic figures and let the customer put them on however they want. Of course, if you can get written permission from the copyright holder, it's game on.

This is why I always told the customer they had to get the permission and then I would make anything they wanted.

Thank you everyone for your input! I’m not to concerned about the llama cake as the reference photo is already a little different then the actual character & if I take away the arrow I could just pass it off as a “piñata llama”. 

The avengers cake is difficult, kakeladi has a point where some of the design is not copyrighted. My  plan is to contact the mom who ordered & tell her I’m making slight adjustments due to copyright, a standard A on top instead of the logo & when photos are taken I will make sure to only include the star & the other shapes that can’t be copyrighted. How does that sound?

idk -- just sounds like you're backing off from it -- i'm no lawyer -- idk --

I just finished a book about knock off purses being sold as the real deal -- with murder, the fbi, etc. -- and so when it comes to cake I can hardly think of anything but fair use in a lot of this stuff but it's not like that I wish it was so -- idk -- I don't do them

Who on this site has ran into copyright legal issues?

pls read this 

http://www.cakeboss.com/Cake-Stuff/selling-cakes-with-copyrighted-characters

the people that run into copyright infringement issues are likely no longer in business — not always but often —

pls read this one too 

http://www.cakeboss.com/Cake-Stuff/selling-copyrighted-character-cakes-should-you-do-it

_K8memphis , Thanks for posting the copyright infringement. When my husband and I took the Wilton master class in "15 we specifically asked about selling  character pan cakes . We were told   by Wilton it was definitely a copyright infringement. I know we lose some business by not doing licensed and copyrighted cakes but we have enough orders to fill. I see beautiful cakes that are copyrighted all over the web but personally it's not for me.

mahtc2016 -- for sure -- I mean I have a very hard head and it took quite a bit of discussion for me to get this concept through my thick skull -- and I've been doing this before there was much adieu at all about copyright infringement