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Twilight cake and copyright

post #1 of 11
3/10/12 at 8:57pm
Thread Starter 
Hi Everyone,
I got a request for a Twilight cake, and i cannot figure out an idea. All imagery that will define cake as Twilight theme (apple, tulip, chess pieces, etc.) I would assume is copyrighted. Anyone has an idea how to get this done?
Thanks, P
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post #2 of 11
3/10/12 at 9:11pm
Your best bet would be to purchase a decopac or licensed cake toppers on something like a black and white checkered background.
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post #3 of 11
3/10/12 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
Ahhhhh....nope, not my style. That's what I thought. I'll pass on this one. Thanks icon_smile.gif
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post #4 of 11
3/11/12 at 6:52am
there have been apples around since Adam and Eve, chess has been played for centuries and tulips grow in Holland and many other parts of the world, how can these things be copyrighted?
regards from Shanghai, China
Ursula
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanghai-schroeder/
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regards from Shanghai, China
Ursula
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanghai-schroeder/
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post #5 of 11
3/11/12 at 7:26am
I agree 100% with Ursula.
Hobby baker for now.....
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Hobby baker for now.....
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post #6 of 11
3/11/12 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
My understanding that all book covers are copyrighted, which means black/white/red imagery with an apple, that style tulip/those specific chess pieces/hands/puzzle pieces, etc in combination make up a copyright image. We are not talking about just an apple or just a tulip or just chess. I can make a yellow cake with purple tulip and green apple, but it won't be Twilight, will it be?
I don't have a really good answer, but if this is just a grey territory, I'm not willing to go there, it's not worth it.
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post #7 of 11
3/11/12 at 10:01am
I normally don't weigh in on copyright stuff because what do I know? But I don't think an apple is copyrighted, otherwise the Beetles would have locked that down a long time ago and Macintosh would have never been changed to Apple. I think the logo and the character likenesses are copyrighted for Twilight, but the specific elements on their own are fine. Regardless, Stephanie Meyer encourages the fan made stuff so I seriously doubt you'd have anything to worry about if you wanted to put a chess piece and an apple on a black cake or something. Too me, that's a very gray area.
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post #8 of 11
3/11/12 at 10:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Quote:

Too me, that's a very gray area.



Yeah, that probably is. And you are probably right too, I won't get into trouble with this one, but with bigger picture when I explain to customers that I cannot do copyright work, don't want anyone say "but you did a Twilight cake for so and so" I did some thinking about it after I posted and decided to go with "when in doubt..." senario. Right or wrong, personally I'll sleep better at night.
Thanks, P
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post #9 of 11
3/11/12 at 10:36am
If you did just a generic apple or just a chess piece that would probably be OK, but the customer specifically requested a Twilight cake so presumably there would be multiple design elements which taken together are part of a copyrighted design. The goal from the customer's perspective is to make it look like a Twilight cake, and that's exactly what you can't do from a copyright perspective.

Of course you can always contact the copyright owner and request permission.

BTW it is correct that a generic apple cannot be copyrighted, but a specific apple (for example, the Apple corporate logo or the apple used in-context on the Twilight book cover) can be.
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My experimental blog: The Bakery Business Perspective
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post #10 of 11
3/11/12 at 10:40am
I KNOW there is a copyright law - - but do those holding the copyright really care if you do a single cake? What about all those Louis Vuitton purse cakes out there?? The LV logo is copyrighted and so many make cakes with this logo.
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post #11 of 11
3/11/12 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgraboski

I KNOW there is a copyright law - - but do those holding the copyright really care if you do a single cake?


Yes. Usually people don't get caught, but there are independent companies that specialize in locating IP theft and reporting it to the copyright owner. These companies will often get a bounty or percentage of the legal settlement so it is in their best interest to find as many violations as possible. This is an especially important issue to companies (like LV) where most of their value is in IP, since if the brand was no longer protected these companies would basically cease to exist.
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