Allowed to sell characatures?

[ebsolutions]

Hi there, I wanted to know if I am allowed to sell celebrity characatures drawn by myself? They would be professionally drawn. Any feedback would be great. Thanks.

 

[Billmccallum]

Yes, but how many people want to buy them?

 

[ebsolutions]

They will be quite unique, but I just wanted to check if I am allowed to sell my own representations of famous people.

 

[moduslegal]

Not entirely sure about this, but a couple of thoughts. First, I can't see why not - they are entirely your own original creation, therefore you would own the copyright and, for example, if you couldn't do it then newspapers wouldn't have cartoonists.

Second thought is that one thing to be careful of would be a defamatory depiction of a famous person.

Final thought would be that there is a slow encroachment at the moment towards the development of the concept of image rights within UK law - and image rights do actually exist in other jurisdictions - therefore if, for example you were going to do one of Wayne Rooney you might find lawyers chasing you for some kind of licence fee.

Hope that helps

 

[internetspaceships]

Oh and whatever you do, make sure you're not doing characatures of "the prophet" or the legality of what you're doing won't be an issue

 

[ebsolutions]

Thanks for the replies.

How do you mean characatures of "the prophet"?

 

[internetspaceships]

I was referring to an incident involving a european newspaper recently that involved some pretty heavy religious incidents and death threats.

Good luck with your characatures, I'd like to see some.

 

[ebsolutions]

I see.

Thanks. I will PM you when I have some to show. They are still in development at the moment

 

[David Griffiths]

Hint if you are going to advertise them.

It's caricature

 

[internetspaceships]

Damn I knew something didn't look right when I was typing that.....

Thanks