This blog is all about copyrights and art with a fun focus on memes, but it is more of an abstract to the issue as a whole. In an effort to make these facts more concrete, I am taking a look at the epitome of raw copyright art, ZINES!
A zine is a self published magazine. These pieces of art take the form of comic books, classified adds, humorous musings, and anything the artist wants it to be. The spectrum is broad. Because zines are inherently self published they are the perfect examples to go over the views of copyrights, and Zine Fest is the perfect scenario to take a glimpse into how fair use and art appropriation really effect an everyday artist and the public.
Entering Zine Fest there are booths crowded together with people packed like cattle looking at the new art. The variety abounds more than I can describe, but there were Eevee stickers to memoirs of this seemingly random guy. Each booth had an unique story and an unique artist to accompany it.
I want to focus on two booths: one, the Eevee stickers; and two, these guys who created an original comic book Outliers.
Eevee
I wanted to talk about this booth because I’m pretty sure it is safe to assume that this lady was not the original artist of the Eevee character and its evolutions nor does she have the authority from Pokemon to use the Eevee image. So it begs the question, are the Vaporeon, Espeon, and Umbreon stickers I bought covered by fair use or do I have black market stickers (It is imporant to not that Pokemon would never sue this sweet lady because that would be ridiculous and bad for their image, but this is just a blog. We are 
just learning by example).
One fair use check is art appropriation. Did she manipulate the original image enough to make it her own? It is obvious that she didn’t just copy and paste, but did in fact create these herself from the idea of Eevee, but when looking at the pictures I don’t think it is enough to count as art appropriation. The meaning of the work didn’t change, just a minor alteration to the style of the Pokemon.
This forces us to dive further into what fair use really means, and what its relationship with “Fan Art” is. The Fair Use clause does not cover all fan art, and because fair use is already finicky, it is normally up to the “original” owner of the work to determine if it is or is not okay for someone else to be using their work. In some ways it helps with publicity, but in others it is stealing. In the case of the Eevee stickers, which will never go to court unless for some reason this individual becomes a millionaire from selling these stickers, it is fair use.
Outliers
Now we are going to look at the opposite end of the fair use scale. Outliers is a really good comic book created by these two guys. It has a completely original story line and art. They own all the copyrights to this material. They aren’t a huge company that makes
millions on advertising. They are just trying to live a beautiful dream creating a comic book series.
I would image if someone started selling stickers of their art, even a slight variation, they would be upset. It’s “good advertising” but not if the fan art doesn’t acknowledge you or if you aren’t getting any royalties from the thing you created. I’m assuming they wouldn’t/couldn’t hire a big shot lawyer to sue whoever this culprit is, and in most cases that doesn’t happen. If anything an email is sent to Etsy or RedBubble (wherever they are selling the items) and asked for it to be removed for copyright infringement.
This post might not have helped make copyright issues anymore concrete, but it does help continue the discussion on how we view copyrights and how we apply them to our everyday life.
Copyrighting the Internet 