Copyright Implications? *New Question - See EDIT

[Mahiru Suoh]

So AD, basically I had an idea for a personal project I would call "365 Days of Redesign" where I would take logos of any company/business and redesign them as a daily blog. So pretty much a logo a day.

This all sounded nice and dandy until I remembered that I didn't own these logos.

So what I'm asking is, is this an issue of copyright/ownership?

It might seem silly but I just want to make sure my a** is covered before I start anything. I don't think some of the companies would mind but I'm not going to take shots in the dark, so to speak.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just wondering if anyone knows of a free program that operates some what like Illustrator? Basically I'm just searching for something that has something similar to the Pen tool and access to a wide range of fonts (whether compatible with dafont, Universal Type Client, or just comes with a variety of fonts).

I'm just so shaky still with my tablet and I hate taking crappy photos of drawn work.

Thanks!

[Laenri]

I don't really know about how copyright infringement works, but I heard if it is even 10% similar then they have rights to ******** up your s**t or something like that >_<

So that means you have to change at least 91% of it. D: I could be wrong tho so don't quote me for this lol

[Mahiru Suoh]

Laenri

I don't really know about how copyright infringement works, but I heard if it is even 10% similar then they have rights to ******** up your s**t or something like that >_<

So that means you have to change at least 91% of it. D: I could be wrong tho so don't quote me for this lol

My plan is to completely change the logo so it's (hopefully) not like the original. The biggest factor in this is, of course, the company name, but I have plans for it too.

[Laenri]

Yea. I can see companies being butthurt, but at the same time its free advertising on your part either way. I don't really know. IOt could be a good decision to do a bit of researching first D:

[Albino Sea Monkey]

I don't know much about the implications of doing something like that, but to be completely honest, I would be worried that a company would see a redesigned logo, like it a lot, and nab it to use without your permission. If they were a big enough company, they might bully you into being able to use it, which would suck.

[kwahoo]

Most logos are actually trademarks/servicemarks. While there are some copyright issues, most of them revolve around confusing or misleading people. As long as you are not being misleading about what you are doing, I highly doubt any company would really care. If you do get a C&D letter, just apologize and take that logo off your site.

If you want to stay away from any legal stuff, you might try redesigning universal symbols (recycle, stop sign, bathroom people, etc.).

[Laenri]

Haha, redoing bathroom people would be fun. I've seen some pretty crazy designs on some doors to bathrooms before xD

[Shanna66]

as long as you arent making money off of it i think it would be ok. its seems like you could just treat it as fanart

[God-the-almighty]

Look up trademark law, that's the part that might mess you up.

[Niamh the Fae]

Laenri

I don't really know about how copyright infringement works, but I heard if it is even 10% similar then they have rights to ******** up your s**t or something like that >_<

So that means you have to change at least 91% of it. D: I could be wrong tho so don't quote me for this lol

There are no percentages in copyright law. It's not something that can be measured numerically, so courts can't really use a measure like that. (Anime conventions often state a percentage, though, since they don't have to have complete proof like a legal court does. That might be the reason you've heard percentages.)

I'd give a rundown of what it is based on, but that's kind of beyond the scope of this thread, since logos would usually fall under trademark law and not copyright. If you ever need to know if you're violating copyright law, though, best thing to do is find the official copyright website for your country and read about it there.

[Mahiru Suoh]

Wow, great responses! I'll follow these suggestions right now.

[Mahiru Suoh]

Well, as far I can understand of the Canadian Trademark Act, if I'm not being misleading in conclusion with other precautions, I should be okay.

Nonetheless, I'm writing out a disclaimer.

[Miramelle]

If your intentions are blatantly stated (as they are here), I don't think anyone will take issue with it. Since this is not for profit, there are way less issues. You may even be protected under parody laws. If nothing else, no company will outright sue you- at the worst, you'll get a cease and desist letter requesting that you remove a company's logo (although that's got some pretty long odds of happening). Heck, this was a graphic design project at my highschool, so I think you're safe.

[silverteardrop]

From my understanding, if it's for educational purposes and not for profit you should be in the clear

(But if you wanted the full details, you would have to look at the copyright and trademark laws for the company's home country to know the full implications, not just your own)

[silverteardrop]

This blog is using a similar idea you have

http://hipsterbranding.tumblr.com/

Judging from the positive press this blog has, I think you should be ok