Copyright Question

[Former_Member]

Just wondering about copyright infringement issues. Is putting a Disclaimer on your listing enough?

I've seen lots of shops add a statement that they don't own the characters but that you are paying them for their time and creativity.

[ClickPaperCo]

If shops even use trademarked names in their tags they can get shut down. It is not legal, and shops that use other company's names, logos, and characters without permission from the creator are basically stealing. Think about it this way, if you take the time to develop a character or brand and others start using it to promote their own items after you did all that work and invested time and money... how would you feel about it?

[Former_Member]

Yup, what Amy said ^^

Sadly there's masses (I mean thousands and thousands) of copyright violations on Etsy. Kinda makes me sad and angry when I see it tbh

[Former_Member]

Hi Leslie,

I see that you want to protect your own designs. No, a disclaimer is not really enough. We rely on our customers' honesty and it's impossible to check what they do with our printables.

I add copyright info to my shop listings and to the printables as a deterrent. I am a member of Acid in the UK (I think thay have links with the US too) which is the next best thing to getting designs registered.

http://www.acid.uk.com

I also use Acrobat to restrict printing to low res output on home printers.

Hope this helps!