Asda New outragous policy

marleyboy

After spending 2 days creating a template for a babies 3rd birthday cake, of which included a photo of her sat in a garden with Dora the Explorer, the Mother took it to Asda (eastlands) to have it printed onto a cake.

With just one day to go before her birthday the assistant told her that she could not have the image put on the cake, as it was a copyright infringement, having Dora the Explorer on it.

It was explained to them that as I had created the image myself, the only copyrights would be my own, the assistant said it was still infringing copyrights and refused to do it.

Arguing that it was still ok to buy there own "whinnie the Pooh" design and super impose the babies photo onto that, they said that they had a licence for that.

Mentioning that last year I had done the same for another babies birthday cake, only using Scooby Doo for them, they stammered and said "oh yes, but that was last year, we have a new policy this year".

I rang them personally after all the fracka, to explain that I had designed Dora myself as I am a Graphic Designer, and that the image of Dora was not simply cut and pasted from anywhere else, so there should be no royalty or copyright infringements, but they still said that Dora was a copyright and that they will not do it.

I find this ridiculous, its not as if there is any attempt to make financial gains out of it, the only gain would be to see the baby smile at the cake.

So if this is the case, I want to know just what limit there is on the copyrights, were I to invest in some "royalty Free" artwork, could they still don there Jobsworth hat and say "no". if I changed the colour of Dora's dress, would that make a difference, what if I called her Dorah, and changed her hairstyle. Maybe I could argue with them that it was my artwork, and therefore "copyrighted".

This is a stupid rule, and I am pretty sure that if such a clause exists, there has to be a boundary or some slack.

As a designer and artist, as well as a consumer, I want to know if this rule actually exists and what its limitations are, could they turn my artwork down for having "Happy Birthday" wrote on it in italics for example, in case it infringes on copyrights of cards?

Are they being petty here, or am I? I'm just furious:mad:

j_davies

marleyboy wrote:

With just one day to go before her birthday the assistant told us that we could not have the image put on, as it was a copyright infringement, having Dora the Explorer on it.

It was explained to them that as I had created the image myself, the only copyrights would be my own, the assistant said it was still infringing copyrights and refused to do it.

he is 100% correct you dont have any rights to reproduce someone elses work unless you paid them royalties and they are just covering their behinds, it does seem petty but its the law.

Also you didnt create the image you re-created it and has to therefore stay out of the public domain, just put it down to the good old US of A and the sue culture thats eroding our Britishness

Hope the party goes well

marleyboy

Al_Mac wrote:

I think they are more likely to be right than you. I would think a copy of something that is under copyright isn't legal, hence the word copy.

If it were a copy, then yes, but as it was my own artwork.

Toon

i would agree with Asda I'm afraid.

marleyboy

does that mean I can copyright an image with a blue sky, and anyone who dared to copy my artwork, by including a blue sky, I could sue the !!! off?

j_davies

marleyboy wrote:

If it were a copy, then yes, but as it was my own artwork.

No you copied Dora if you made an original then thats not a copy, so if you made a Dora likeness but with a significant difference like One eye and a mechanical arm then thats you own work but its still based upon so its best to make your own Dora with no resemblance to anything previous to it.

j_davies

marleyboy wrote:

does that mean I can copyright an image with a blue sky

NO as its in the public domain by natures default.

marleyboy

still think theyre a bunch of Jobsworth do-gooders, and taking it a bit extreme with a birthday cake

j_davies

marleyboy wrote:

still think theyre a bunch of Jobsworth do-gooders, and taking it a bit extreme with a birthday cake

Yeah but then again how would you feel if you worked for them and were just implemnting a procedure from higher up, even though the shop floor worker may have kids and a mortgage and doesnt agree with the policy enforced by some big coporate film studio and could get the store into all sorts of legal problems and them loose their job all over 1 cake.

marleyboy

but surely there has to be some limitations, I could easily argue that the image is from a clipart disk that is Royalty free. meaning its public domain.

marleyboy

I'm guessing that this time next week, theyll have Dora cakes for sale