Stingy publishers

[Mommy's handsome boy]

I created a design hand made for star dew and posted it on redbubble, I recieved great feedback and concernedape on Twitter did not say no to my publishing of it. Today I get an email that chuckle fish has removed my design... I then looked and realized all stardew designs were removed from redbubble.. Like seriously you guys are making loads of money and won't help artist who are spreading the name out there. Some of these shirts didn't even have stardew written on the shirt. Such a shame.

[AvatarMan]

Did you try and contact them about it.

[Mommy's handsome boy]

I did only tried through Twitter, I'm thinking maybe if I email chuckle fish they will answer, I will have to give it a try.

[Proteus]

Pewrhaps you could also tell ConcernedApe about it

[CoLS Firestar]

That's basic art theft to take a copyrighted image that isn't yours and make money off of it.

[VerboseLamp]

I'm not a lawyer, but chances are Chucklefish is acting on his behalf to remove what they view as blatant copyright infringement. Unless he specifically okayed it with them, they'd be acting well within their rights to do so.

It sounds like you tried to do the right thing by getting an okay first, but there's nothing anyone here is going to be able to do to help you. The bottom line is you have to talk to Chucklefish and get them to okay it.

[Brynjar]

What you did is break copyright law. Without consent, in writing (a contract usually), you cannot use any sort of intellectual property that you do not own or are responsible for. It doesn't matter if it says the name of the game, you can play around and skirt the edges (i was a graphic designer for 10 years) but even if you use the same font, same colors.. you can be sued or get a cease and desist letter.. You are lucky they didn't just sue you.

[Cabbage]

They wouldn't sue anyone unless they kept doing it, it wouldn't be worth their time.

But yeah that is illegal.

[Brynjar]

Originally posted by Ealdwine:

They wouldn't sue anyone unless they kept doing it, it wouldn't be worth their time.

But yeah that is illegal.

In this case, yeah you are likely correct. It would be too costly for a smaller company like this to sue you.. but it is still an option. Some will crush or at least attempt to, anyone that screws with them.

Look at how the NFL handles their merch. I once made a set of Buttons using colors and fonts.. I sold them at a swap meet, once.. I sold some on facebook, to ONE person.

A week after that, I got a fancy letter from the NFL (a cease and desist letter, basically a threat) to stop or I'd face thier legal department.

[SodaDrinker69]

seems a shame, since most publishers don't seem to mind people selling published prints/shirts/whatever of fan art of their games. try to get a response from concernedape on it.

further reading here if you're interested, op: https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/05/13/the-messy-world-of-fan-art-and-copyright/

[DankSlayer]

What you did wasn't really okay. The author didn't say no, but you didn't say that he allowed you to make profit off your design that's not your original concept.


There are other ways to promote the game, and you could just send them a message like "Hey, I made a design based on your game and I would like to profit from it. Are you okay with it if we share the income?"

You have no right to insult the developers, because they had a good reason to do it.

[Fire Miser]

If it used the name of stardew or and iconic characters to push a sale. Chuckle has a right to bring it down. Specially if they have plans for their own merch for stardew, they need to protect Apes IP. Should have contacted them first.

[Dapper Demon]

The issue with people selling stuff under someone else's brand is that it will end up affecting them. If the quality is horrible or faulty it'll come back on the IP owner as to most it'll be viewed as an official licensed product.

Also you are using their IP in an illegal manner, you're using someone else's idea to make yourself money and just because the IP owner didn't say no doesn't give you express consent to do such a thing.

If you want to do business with them send an email with a potential agreement and be prepared to negotiate. Chuckle is completely in the right, they did nothing wrong and only you were in the wrong by profiting illegally off someone else's brand.

[Sparse Dunes]

Originally posted by Kirby:

I created a design hand made for star dew and posted it on redbubble, I recieved great feedback and concernedape on Twitter did not say no to my publishing of it.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't.

Originally posted by Kirby:

Today I get an email that chuckle fish has removed my design... I then looked and realized all stardew designs were removed from redbubble.. Like seriously you guys are making loads of money and won't help artist who are spreading the name out there. Some of these shirts didn't even have stardew written on the shirt. Such a shame.

Learn about copyright laws before you make goods based on existing Properties.

[Mommy's handsome boy]

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

That's basic art theft to take a copyrighted image that isn't yours and make money off of it.

actually it isn't art theft at all. I took a slime character and made a design out of it. It did not have Stardew on the design. The image I made was created pixel per pixel. Its kind of like if you saw a super mario shirt on redbubble but they created that mario by illustrating it.

[Cabbage]

Originally posted by Kirby:

Originally posted by CoLS Firestar:

That's basic art theft to take a copyrighted image that isn't yours and make money off of it.

actually it isn't art theft at all. I took a slime character and made a design out of it. It did not have Stardew on the design. The image I made was created pixel per pixel. Its kind of like if you saw a super mario shirt on redbubble but they created that mario by illustrating it.

You are still using their copyright whether you made it or not. If you went out and produced a Ford Fusion car from scratch, it would still be illegal to sell.