... there's no way that can be enforceable, right? Like, I get that nobody has the lawyers to go up against them if push came to shove, but if it DID go to court... That ain't legal, right?
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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I haven't had the chance to talk to anyone who is an actual lawyer, but several people who are better at parsing legal stuff than I has said that (give or take your country) that it's null and void. However to do so requires money to challenge them in court. And TPC can out-money most people.
While not about fanart and was about emulation, it reminds me of the Bleem vs Sony trials. Bleem won every court case to sell their emulator but in the end the company died because they could not keep up with all of the court costs. Meanwhile, Sony could keep affording to lose and try again.
That's a damned shame. I wonder if it wouldn't be worth fighting just for the fact that the fanart is the artist's own IP, even if it features TPC characters, and they could go after them for not just actual losses, but perceived/potential losses as well? TPC is a big company, and an exclusive license to use the fanart would cost them a pretty penny, and our artist could potentially be out of a lot of royalty money. I think it may be worth a consultation, at the very least.
Chances are nothing would come from it, or if they did it would be like that photographer who had to fight PETA. A guy was photographing primates in the Amazon (I think?) and one of the animals interacted with the camera and took a photo of itself. They guy sold that photo and make quite a name for himself on it, but PETA threw a shitload of money at taking him to court for stealing the monkey's art and selling it as his own. The legal battles got drawn way out, his name got dragged, and now he hates photography.
The problem isn't just the TPC is a big company. They own the biggest franchise in the world and 2nd place isn't even close. Your normal people, even in a big group, can't fight it without someone else with big money decides to enter the ring. The only exception that comes to mind is if this fandom decides to take accountability and stop buying everything that comes out, but I think we all know the answer to this.
That said, I hope others keep passing along the facts as they come up. It's not right for a company to feel so powerful that it can feel free to bully their own fans so openly.
Very, very true. It's so hard to get a significant amount of people to vote with their wallets the way they need to in order to enact change. They just... Won't.
It doesn't help that most of our fandom are casuals who don't understand the frame of money involved. They have no concept that every other AAA company is working with less money than TPC.