How to get around copyright laws? - Page 2

I'm just curious .... is there anyone on here who actually did get pursued by a large company for doing copyrighted character cakes?

ya know I never thought about it before, but I do know of a bakery (somewhere cant remember where, maybe in Delaware) anyway, my mom and I were waiting in line to buy some cheese danish, when two of the ladies behind the counter were talking amongst themselves (but loud enough for mom and I to hear) saying something about some webpage or website had pictures of everything from decorated brownies up that had copyrighted things on it, and if they couldnt get their copyright permission being a bakery that they were going to see to it that the particular site or page would be taken down too..... now given it was over 14 years ago, before my oldest was born, but still there really are those who are *****es about things huh?

Companies are more likely to take legal action if you use a picture of theirs from the web or an ad. Like you cant take a picture off the web and use it as an edible image and then sell it. Cake pans are copyrighted to Wilton to sell. Selling the cake is not a problem.

The cake pans are copyrighted to Wilton to sell to home bakers for their own use. Anytime you use a copyrighted image without paying the company that holds the copyright you are in violation and the holder has legal recourse. Now whether they take action is up to them, if they even found out about it. The thing is, it could just be a busybody doing it, not necessarily the company. The one story I heard (happened to a friend of my WMI) was about a cake for a birthday party where a patent attorney was in attendance. The company never would have found out about it but the patent attorney didn't need them to file a grievance.

I have heard that its alot worse to sell the Wilton copyrighted pan cakes than to violate copyrights in other ways. Basically you will get in trouble alot quicker by selling a Wilton Pooh cake than you will by making your own Pooh cake...

I don't worry about what I come up with on my own but I do try to avoid selling the Wilton ones. Only one time I made a 3D Eeyore cake and the lady I sold it to happened to work for Disney! She was trying to be nice and said she was going to send a picture to Disney and try to make me famous or something but I begged her not to!

I find it interesting when people put alot of effort into find a loophole, instead of figuring out ways you can do it legally.

There are no loopholes and no way around copyright laws . It doesn't matter which pan you use or whether it's an edible image or a BCT. It doesn't matter if you charge just for the box it came in or the ingredients. If you're creating a recognizable (even if small details are changed) copyrighted image/character/picture/design without permission/licensing and you accept $$$ in connection with the cake, you've violated copyright laws.

As an example of actions some companies take, I was given permission by a company to make cakes for them...replicas of products. Even though I make the cakes with permission, I'm not granted permission to post the cakes anywhere. I can't advertise them, enter them in contests or post them in the gallery. I wasn't given a reason but I'm guessing they don't want copycats. It just goes to show you how sensitive some companies are about this.

As far as I have read, the only legal way to deal with licenced items on cakes you sell is to have the client purchase figures to go on top of a cake... i.e. I was asked to do a Pokemon cake a while ago, so I make the cake to look like the "battle field" and they added some little plastic Pokemon that they had.

Even purchasing the figures yourself can technically be a problem as you are still "selling" their image (no kidding!)

You would think that big corporations woudn't care if we made a couple of dollars, but a lot of them do ... Disney is one of the most militant about protecting their images!

Even purchasing the figures yourself can technically be a problem as you are still "selling" their image (no kidding!)


Okay that is confusing to me I thought that is what the kits are for and that is what the grocery stores use?

OK, so how about if your customer buys the character pan (or rents it, or whatever) and you are charging for the "Service" of decorating it for them. You're not charging for the cake itself, but for your services...

I dunno, just a thought

Here is some of the text from the link I posted, since nobody seems to be reading it. Basically you can not legally use any image that is copyrighted, and almost everything is copyrighted. That's the first I've heard about not being able to use purchased figures on top of a cake though.

"All licensed character shaped pans, candy molds and cookie cutters are for consumer home use only. Stores/Shops/Decorators cannot make cakes, cookies or candies from licensed products and sell them to consumers. These "mold-making" items are strictly prohibited from any type of commercial use since the licensor has neither the method to control the quality of the reproduction of the character nor the ability to earn royalties on sales of the "made" products. This applies to both baked & craft-type products.

Free-hand or copies of character designs cannot be drawn or iced on top of a cake, cupcakes or cookies and sold for any type of commercial purpose. Once again, the licensor cannot control the quality & is not earning a royalty on the product created around their characters.

Licensed pans cannot be rented to consumers by shops/stores/decorators since, once again, the licensor is not earning a royalty from the transaction.

Specifically, creating any type of image that looks like a licensed character that then is sold for commercial purposes is prohibited unless there is a specific licensing agreement with the licensor for that product and royalties are paid each time the product is sold.

Additionally- A customer cannot bring a decorator or store/shop a character pan/mold they have bought, and ask them to make the cake/candy/cookie in exchange for money. This is considered the same thing as above, because money is exchanging hands without the licensor earning royalties.

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*The following is info I received during a Demo about Edible Images, from the Lucks Food Decorating Company:
The Law
A copyright protects an original work or creation and gives exclusive right to that work or creation to its author. Copyright law protects the author's/creator's work by prohibiting anyone else from using or profiting from that creation in any way without the owner's permission.

In reproducing copyrighted figures, it does not matter if the character is drawn by hand, added using an image projector, or put on a cake with a computer cake machine. If the item carries a © or ® or symbol(and frequently even if it doesn't), then it is protected. using it without permission can get your shop, you and perhaps your customer in trouble.

Copyright protection applies to a number of things including but not limited to music, art, tv, movies, books, drawings, professional photographs, team logos and celebrity likenesses. This includes such items as:
|Greeting Cards
Trading Cards
Wrapping Paper
Paper Plates, napkins, or other party supplies
Comic Books
Album or CD covers or Video games"

You're not technically selling their image since the "image" has already been paid for. The kits are allowed as are licensed edible images. They're licensed. The company has been paid and permission has been given to put them on a cake and sell it. You wouldn't be violating copyright laws. However, some manuf have stopped selling these to individuals requesting that they only be sold to bakeries. The kits also come with directions for how the cake should look/be decorated, giving the company control over how their "image" is portrayed. The only problems you may run into using kits/toppers would be if you portrayed the "image" in a way the company thought was "damaging." This is a separate issue from copyright infringement.

As Ali pointed out, you can't rent character pans and even charging just for the service of decorating them is accepting $$$ in connection with the cake.

OK.... what if the pan is supplied and u bake and decorate it.....then they just give you a donation???

It's still accepting $$$ in connection with the cake. In truth, even if you're doing the cake for free you've still infringed on a company's copyrights but it would be difficult to prove that the company sustained damages just because you made a Spider-Man cake for your nephew.

An example of this is a video store near my old neighborhood had a kid's character mural on the outside of their building. The owner painted it, no money exchanged hands but by having the mural, it seemed as if the store was endorsed by those characters. He was using the characters to draw in business...using them for free without having to pay the company that owned the copyrights on the images. He ended up having to paint over them. Same thing has happened with daycares and wall murals. Cakes are no different. If you ran a large non-profit organization and gave away unlicensed character cakes...you'd probably be hearing from some company lawyers even though the cakes were free.