Using Licensed Characters

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this team, and now that I'm unemployed, I want to focus on getting my shop up and running with more sales. I specialize in digital invitations and cards. My question is, as I've looked around it seems like a lot of the successful shops similar to mine are mostly selling products that use licensed characters such as Disney, Sesame Street, etc. Is that legal? I know some shop owners are putting disclaimers saying they can only be used for private use. Is that how they're getting around it? Where do they get the graphics anyway, I'm assuming they're just copying from the internet?

I want to have a successful shop, but I also don't want to do anything illegal. Any suggestions you could offer would be appreciated.

[Former_Member]

Well, if it's a licensed character, it's exactly what it is. :p So, no, you cannot use a licensed character. Or -any- character that is not created by you, unless you buy the rights.

Theses people are taking a chance of being sued by said company if they find out. It's quite risky to do something like this. Especially with big companies like Disney... they're not afraid to sue.

What you could do is buy an image a local illustrator. *wink*wink*