Forum - View topicAnswerman - Is Cosplay Copyright Infringement?
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Ronolo
 Posts: 13 Location: Dallas |
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So, If I manage to steal/replicate the secret KFC recipe, and publish that on the internet. I would not be breaking copyright infringement. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kfcs-secret-recipe-revealed-colonels-nephew-11-herbs-spices-a7210521.html |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Indeed, Ray Croc was able to do that to shut down the McDonald Brothers whom he bought the McDonald's franchise from in the first place. The brothers were naïve and thought that as long as they stayed away from Croc, they could continue to operate a hamburger restaurant. They didn't expect him to take them to court for the purpose of financially ruining them. Something I recall is that the name "Big Mac" is off limits, period, regardless of what it's used for. Name anything Big Mac that you intend to sell, even if it's window cleaner or an excavator or a character in your story or anything else that nobody would mistake for the hamburger, and you can bet McDonald's will be on your rear end before long. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Copyright only exists so giant companies have a legal hammer to smash things. Small companies or startups can't enforce their own claims, nor should anyone.
Copyright is anti-consumer. The people experiencing art are placed at the bottom of the ladder for unverifiable claims that exclusive control over an IP is the only way to be profitable. |
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SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
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Yes, if you stole the recipe that would actually be a crime called Industrial Espionage, which is punishable for either $500,000 or 15 years in prison. And making it public knowledge would be an act of Industrial Sabotage, which would leave you in a serious civil legal battle. Now recreating the recipe is an entirely different story, because that is legal. Because you made an honest attempt at recreating a recipe that in effect. But that quickly ends if you managed to get 100% accurate in recreating the recipe and it ends up copyrighted or the process that made it unique is copyrighted, then it could end up a nasty legal battle. Now in this case of the Spirited Away food, as long as it's not copyrighted, it should be perfectly legal. And you can't copyright real foods being substituted for fictional ingredients. ......... As for cosplayers being sued, with this recent CBS / Axanar lawsuit, apparently you can get sued. One of the new fan film rules mandates that you have to use licensed costumes and props from CBS licensed shops. But this rule only applies to fan films, But normal cosplayers, those go to events or conventions, are in a gray area and mostly ignored. At least until they attempt to make a profit off recreated items, which crosses the red line. All in all, as long as you don't make a profit, they are okay with you. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Nope--In fact, happens often: https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/copycat-kfc-original-style-chicken/97c93d14-9d8c-4bc7-96dc-1e0b37e4fcaa (I'd go a little heavier on the sage, though.) Tried a great online recipe for Hostess Cupcakes last year, but that's not a "secret" recipe. |
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peno
Posts: 349 |
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Then how come they could call Big Macintosh in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Big Mac on many occasions throughout the series, without me hearing about any legal issues from McDonald's to Hasbro? |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Yeesh, I feel copyright law in the United States is way overstepping its boundaries, but I'd say it's not inherently evil. Rather, copyright, trademarks, and patents are concepts intended for good that got quickly corrupted by greed. Their original intent is to allow a creator of a work to actually get rewarded for his or her creativity. The alternative is that as soon as someone invents something useful or creates a good story, someone else will go imitate it and profit off of their work. If this goes on for long enough, you get situations like China or southeast Asia where there's little point in making anything good because therre is nothing to stop poachers from taking the idea and earning a living, at least until the next poacher comes by. Heck, it happens even where these laws exist but aren't enforced, like Eli Whitney with his cotton gin. It is quite possible to remain profitable in the public domain, but I don't know of any cases where someone has become successful doing so.
Actually, if you look carefully, you'll see that he is never referred to as Big Mac, only "Big McIntosh" (spelled in that way) in all merchandise of him and in the credits. He was also referred to strictly as that in dialogue until around Season 5 (I believe "Brotherhooves Social" is the first episode to call him "Big Mac," and even then it's never spelled out as such). According to interviews with Lauren Faust, they DID originally call him Big Mac and DID get in trouble with McDonald's, though because this was during pre-production for Season 1, the McDonald's lawyers just told them that they have to change his name. It was changed to Big McIntosh and the lawyers approved. I'm guessing they can get away with it in dialogue now because of the repeated partnerships with McDonald's to have Happy Meal toys based on the show and that they figured there was going to be no harm to the brand name. I suspect Nintendo got hit too in regards to Punch-Out!! with Little Mac's transformation. It's a no-brainer to call the transformation Big Mac, and many fans call it that, but it's called Giga Mac instead, and I'll bet it's because the people at Nintendo found out they weren't allowed to call him Big Mac. (In turn, I'll bet the smaller version of the hamburger is called the Mac Jr. because Nintendo had trademarked "Little Mac" long ago and McDonald's couldn't use it.) |
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