For kicks and to make some beer money, I recently opened a Zazzle shop. I had an old Cafe Press shop, but I long ago stopped putting money into it, so they stopped offering me services. I thought I had all those old shirt designs backed up, but it seems they were lost in the Great Computer Meltdown of ’010. Still, I had a couple of designs, so I decided to roll with what I had.
In putting up designs, I took the time to digitize one of my favorite paintings: Mickey Guevara.
This is one of my favorite personal works. I think it says a lot. I also think it falls under the Fair Use provision for Parody.
Although a parody can be considered a derivative work under United States Copyright Law, it can be protected from claims by the copyright owner of the original work under the fair use doctrine, which is codified in 17 U.S.C.§ 107. The Supreme Court of the United States stated that parody “is the use of some elements of a prior author’s composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author’s works.” That commentary function provides some justification for use of the older work.
That is what Wikipedia tells us anyway.
Wikipedia's hard-hitting example of parody.
I did far more research than Wikipedia before I decided to post this image. Because I happened to notice that Disney is quite a contributor to Zazzle. After much exploring, I determined my work arguably fell under Fair Use guidelines. Only muddied by the fact that it is also a statement on the sale of Che Guevara’s iconic image, which could potentially put it beneath the unprotected classification of satire.
Still, as equal parts Mickey and Che and a statement on both, I thought I was golden.
Disney disagreed.
It did not even take them 12 hours to get my shirt pulled. I purposefully did not tag the shirt with any Disney names or trademarks in the simple effort to lay low. While I felt I was safe, I didn’t feel it astute to draw attention to myself. Disney is really, really “protective” of their works and they appear to wield the leash of some sort of infringement sniffing hellhound.
Zazzle offers little in the way of arguing my case. Which, quite frankly, I don’t blame them for. Not only are they a for-profit business, but they are also a free service. Disney seems to be a help in their profit that allows them to continue to be free and I am not Van Gogh or Banksy or even a dude who makes a living painting tacky hotel room portraits. I am a little guy with a low traffic blog as my soap box.
So I intend to continue selling my wares through Zazzle as they afford me great opportunity to allow my creations to see the light of day. But I am still a little miffed at the Disney kerfuffle. I understand in a time where piracy is a few clicks away that companies are rightfully protective. Plenty of people would try to use the Mickey Mouse on Zazzle not artistically, but to make a quick buck by just posting his iconic image. As a late night creature of the internet, I see plenty of people blatantly remove watermarks from creative works and add their own to stake lazy, undeserved claim. And that sucks. I am waiting for the day where one of my original images shows back up with not only a lack of accreditation but someone else outright labeling it as their own.
This is a risk I take. A risk Disney certainly does not as an established brand. It would just be nice if they could be a little more lenient with some of us peasant folk. If Disney would allow it, I would sell Mickey Guevara on Zazzle with absolutely no profits coming my way. Just so my work could exist outside of pixels.
Since that won’t happen, I have tirelessly worked on a new, legal creation: Mikey (the legally distinct) Mouse.
He is still obviously a sketch, but I intend to spend my evening digitizing him, adding a little protest text and putting him up for sale. I am sick of reading about bin Laden and the rest of the internet isn’t, so I have time to be petty and spiteful like this.
In the meantime, if you want a Mickey Guevara shirt, email me and I will screenprint you one by hand. Once I have money, I will be restocking my Etsy store with them. Also, I hope to frequently add new designs to the Zazzle shop, so check back.
Viva la revolucion!
