IP licencing/piracy

[NeilW]

...he sculpts Chris Pratt's character from "Jurassic World" and calls him, "Dino Hunter".

From my reading I suspect that this isn't a defence: the clothing, demeanour and facial similarities would be enough to prove a violation.

But you're right about hollering in their work was pirated.

It's an interesting ethical dilemma and I suspect that most on this site err on the side of 'OK for us but not for them' and rationalise it, as I suggested above and perhaps relates to Bentham, Mill and subsequent variations of utilitarian ethics.

 

[theBaron]

From my reading I suspect that this isn't a defence: the clothing, demeanour and facial similarities would be enough to prove a violation.

But you're right about hollering in their work was pirated.

It's an interesting ethical dilemma and I suspect that most on this site err on the side of 'OK for us but not for them' and rationalise it, as I suggested above and perhaps relates to Bentham, Mill and subsequent variations of utilitarian ethics.

I agree again. It's been mentioned in the thread that people have sought the advice of their lawyers, which was that as long as they didn't use a name or title from the copyrighted work, such as the character and movie name, they'd be OK. And the response to that has also been mentioned-until a case might go to court, we don't know if that advice is good or not.

I think the large entertainment companies probably don't spend too much time hunting for such violations, though there are very public cases in which they have staked out their claims and suggested they'd defend them vigorously. I think of Disney, Bandai, and the "Star Wars" brand, for example. I suppose each company weighs the costs on both sides-to pursue and prosecute or not, and whether the legal costs are less than the lost revenue from the piracy.

As for the philosophical roots, that gave me a flashback to a line from "A Fish Called Wanda"-"The central tenet of Buddhism is not, 'Every man for himself!' "

Prost!
Brad