Asda New outragous policy

Darksun

I am guessing ASDA probably have contracts with a number of large media companies like Disney producing branded cakes. They could jepordise their agreement if they started producing them outside the contract.

UKTigerlily

As an Asda colleague all I can say is this is why us Asda colleagues feel so !!!! @ work, that person you 'argued' with was just someone doing their job, they couldn't have bent the rules & done the cake or could've lost their job! Well done for probably upsetting the colleague who would've probably loved to help but couldn't. Sorry I sound annoyed, I get customers go on at me non stop because of policies I don't agree with & there isn't anything I can do. I assume you didn't see the manager of the bakery? If so my apologies. Next time pls talk to the manager cause they get paid to deal with customers that are unhappy, they get trained on how to cope (We don't get any training on dealing with customers at all), they get paid to do it & are more likely to know the copyright laws, I reckon the colleague wouldn't know the ins & outs, we don't get proper training we just follow the rules we have to. Better to be a jobsworth than fired. Better to say they can't do the cake than lie & say they can! Sorry I know i'm being out of order!

dragonsoup

"Dora the Explorer" is actually a trademark and therefore enjoys significant legal protection.

I am not surprised that Asda refused to infringe the trademark holders rights.


All I can say is that if I found any of my images being reproduced on a cake they would be hearing from my legal representatives very quickly

marleyboy

UKTigerlily wrote:

As an Asda colleague all I can say is this is why us Asda colleagues feel so !!!! @ work, that person you 'argued' with was just someone doing their job, they couldn't have bent the rules & done the cake or could've lost their job! Well done for probably upsetting the colleague who would've probably loved to help but couldn't. Sorry I sound annoyed, I get customers go on at me non stop because of policies I don't agree with & there isn't anything I can do. I assume you didn't see the manager of the bakery? If so my apologies. Next time pls talk to the manager cause they get paid to deal with customers that are unhappy, they get trained on how to cope (We don't get any training on dealing with customers at all), they get paid to do it & are more likely to know the copyright laws, I reckon the colleague wouldn't know the ins & outs, we don't get proper training we just follow the rules we have to. Better to be a jobsworth than fired. Better to say they can't do the cake than lie & say they can! Sorry I know i'm being out of order!

I didnt argue or nag the assistant about it, but I was annoyed about it as it was only a birthday cake for a baby, i think the most I would have said offensive to him is "Fine", but if that really hurt his pride in some way, diddums. The copyright is fair enough, and yes if im honest with myself, I did copy someones artwork as the mother specifically asked for Dora. I just think in certain circumstances, they take the law to the extreme. Many years ago I had created a piece of artwork for an advertising company that was mass produced and spread around on huge billboards to promote a product for halloween, in it I had copied an idea from an AC/DC album, which potrayed the Grim Reaper holding a pitch fork over a tombstone. stealing the idea of the Grim reaper. You could say that was an infringement. and no doubt ac/dc could have sued me over the profits I had made from it. But as it was, they didnt. but true I did in effect steal Dora for the artwork, (without profit).

PoochyChoo

LOL.. so basically your whole 'i'm a graphic artist' is based on copies of most things you see that were someone elses ideas??

heres an idea. use your own work. not 'like' something someone did. then its yours.

i personally cant see the problem on a cake thats going to be eaten but hey, you could of been a mystery shopper and that tesco guy would of just got fired...

kitchpoo

Try going in to ASDA with a picture of their shop sign - will they put ASDA on a cake? Could lead to some discussions. But I have to agree, that there are royalties and copyright issues over certain brand names and characters, of which Dora falls in to.

marleyboy

Apple-Windows. Bugs Life - Antz. Flintstones - Capt Caveman. I could go on and on, but the basic jist is there, and regardless I still made a nice profit out of it back then. Besides which, my original question was, and still is, what are the limits on a copyright.

Nicki

Not sure I completely understand the question tbh.

In a nutshell, original work is protected by copyright for 70 years following the death of the creator. This means that you cannot copy a substantial part of the work, save in very limited circumstances - eg for academic research - and conditions will apply. The copyright owner can however license others to copy the work, either free or on payment of a fee. Usually artwork made available on a clipart disc is licensed for private use, but cannot be exploited for gain, therefore you wouldn't be able to use it on a cake you were selling to a third party, but you'd need to look at the precise terms of the license, which should be stated somewhere on the disc or packaging. So far as AC/DC is concerned there is no copyright in an idea, only the expression of an idea, so if your execution was sufficiently different, you would probably have been OK, but this is a very difficult one to judge and fortunes have been won or lost on the court's interpretation of the point.

It sounds like this is an area where you really need to know the law, given your job, and I would therefore recommend that you buy yourself a decent textbook on the subject (there are loads about) so that everytime a situation arises you can look up the legal position to see whether you can or can't do what you are proposing.

UKTigerlily

Yep as someone said, could've been a mystery shopper! Personally I wouldn't care what went on a cake, but companies, specially Asda/Tesco etc must stick to the law! If the papers got hold of a story like Asda breaks copyright laws god help us. There're many annoying things you find like this working in Asda, like only 2 packs of paracetamol can be sold etc etc, but we just have to do our jobs

CHR15

I feel more sorry for a Three Year old! Does she really give a monkeys about the cake??

All this squabbling for nothing! It's a kiddies birthday!!!!!