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Peanuts Character

         

jdhuk

10:58 pm on Jan 8, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Would i be allowed to put a Peanuts character (Charlie Brown) on my home page. The website has nothing to do with Peanuts but the character would look great next to a link to a kids section.

Although a little amusing, copyright is a serious issue but i am unclear if a picture of this nature would cause repercussions ..........

EileenC

11:03 pm on Jan 8, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Nope, they'd nail you right away for unlicensed use of the character. Some companies are very aggressive about protecting their copyrights, and I'm pretty sure the company that owns the Peanuts gang is one of them.

Rosalind

11:11 pm on Jan 8, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Seek out the owner of the copyright/trademark, and ask permission. That's your safest bet, although they may either refuse or charge you a fee.

Although in practice a lot of sites use images that don't belong to them without seeking permission, it's not worth the risk. If your site becomes popular it will almost certainly be noticed by the owners. And there's no point having a site if you have to worry about it attracting too much attention.

rogerd

12:51 am on Jan 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member



The more valuable the franchise, the more aggressive the owners of the intellectual property will be in protecting it. I'd recommend using a more generic clip-art image or one of your own creation.

Marcia

12:57 am on Jan 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



An alternative is if the license holders have an affiliate program or there's a product licensed to use it that has an affiliate program with a graphic available, to put up a link like that. For example, Winnie the Pooh is trademarked and there are loads of products out there that legally can use Pooh.

jdhuk

10:19 pm on Jan 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thank you very much.