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Note that there is a large leeway for copyright holders to operate in. The record and movie industry often prefer to hold their target audience on a short leash, whereas and Hasbro and TakaraTomy have opted for the fan-friendly end of the spectrum.
Fans occasionally excuse the content of fan sites by arguing that they are effectively "free advertising" for the Transformers brand—however, while this mindset certainly influences Hasbro and TakaraTomy's actions in this regard, "free advertising" is by no means a valid legal defense.
Hasbro and TakaraTomy are doing so by their own choice and are free to change their approach whenever they want. For example, in the early s, several fan sites were hosting scans of the Generation 1 Marvel comics and encodes of the Sunbow cartoon.
Neither were officially being distributed back then, and for whatever reason, Hasbro did not take legal action against those materials being openly offered on the internet for several years. However, with the onset of a general s nostalgia wave and an increasing interest in Transformers in general, Titan started releasing collected editions of the Marvel comics, and Kid Rhino released the cartoon on DVD.
Around the same time, the owners of these websites had started to ask for donations to cover their bandwidth fees. Whatever the specific reason, Hasbro eventually sent out cease and desist orders, a comparably harmless legal measure.
The sites in question complied and removed the content in question, prompting Hasbro to continue tolerating their existence and other, comparably minor copyright violations. Knockoffs of Hasbro's toys also constitute copyright violations. This was confirmed in two court cases from , namely Hasbro Bradley, Inc. Sparkle Toys, Inc. Hasbro Bradley, Inc. In addition, despite having finally signed the Berne Convention in , there are still many instances of Chinese authorities not enforcing international copyrights as thoroughly as foreign copyright holders would like them to.
Thus, it's easier for Hasbro to go after domestic distributors or simply urge retailers to stop selling knockoffs. They don't even need to threaten legal action—threatening to stop supplying the store in question with official Hasbro product can be more than sufficient.
Despite this, knockoffs still continue to find their way into American stores. A more complicated concept are " derivative works ". Those are new works which are based in part on other works, to which the creator of those new works does not hold the copyright.
A derivative work is not an outright copyright infringement, since it constitutes a new work that contains original expressions of ideas. However, it is not an entirely independent work either, since it contains elements of other works. If those other works are in the public domain, the creator of the new work does not have to fear litigation, and his new work is protected by copyright. Simply put, Marcel Duchamp 's painting L. Another painting also based on the Mona Lisa could easily coexist with L.
If the earlier work is still protected by copyright, it's possible for the copyright holder s to take legal action against the creator of the derivative work. Aside from the possibility of financial compensation, they may also prohibit any further distribution of the derivative work. The copyright holder of the earlier work does not , however, gain the sole copyright to the derivative work.
Simply put, the creator of the derivative work cannot distribute his work without permission from the copyright holder of the earlier work; but the copyright holder of the earlier work cannot distribute the derivative work without permission from its creator either. There are no cut-and-dry rules for what exactly constitutes a derivative work. Generally, any fanfic based in the Transformers universe that uses existing characters, settings and plot elements is a derivative work.
A fanfic about shape-shifting alien robots that does not use any established names and contains only vague references to established Transformers lore would be much harder to judge. The same accounts for fanart: A drawing that depicts Optimus Prime based on his animation model constitutes a derivative work, but a drawing that depicts a red and blue robot with truck kibble and a head reminiscent of Optimus Prime, but is not based on a preexisting design, is less certain.
However, selling fanart for a profit can also result in additional problems if the artwork in question contains any names or logos that are trademarked by Hasbro. Likewise, toy robots that are based on existing Transformers toys and only change some details such as adding a new head, altering some parts etc.
Scratch-built toys based on existing characters, but not based on existing toys and either based on designs from comics or cartoons with no toy counterpart, or even entirely made up, would qualify as derivative works, because adapting a 2D design into a functional 3D toy constitutes a creative process that qualifies as an original expression of ideas.
In Transformers -related terms, that means most, if not all " third party third party toys" are either derivative works or flat out copyright violations depending on their similarities to existing toys excluding Japanese garage kit toys whose creators acquired a one-day license from TakaraTomy for selling their products at a convention.
Likewise, knockoffs are usually copyright violations as mentioned above , while some of the more "creative" ones might qualify as derivative works. Even customized toys that are sold for a profit can be considered derivative works.
Paolillo and Ellen L. Mitchell and F. Delaney and Kristina M. Kahlon and Aron C. Thomas and Michael P. Neifach and Otieno B. Porzio and Joshua S. Bryan What a Deal! Ferrante and Nathaniel M. Porzio and Elizabeth A. Article By. Aaron Wininger. Hasbro says that it began selling Bumblebee toys in and has been selling building-block toy sets with the Bumblebee brand since The TV series began airing in October The series features younger versions of DC superheroes, including Batgirl and Harley Quinn, as they attend high school.
The Bumblebee character is a tech wizard with super strength and the ability to shrink.
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