chochky wrote:I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I made a few searches and didn't find much. So I just wanted to quickly know what the legislation is regarding using copyrighted artwork in fan works. So say for example I wanted to make a
40k pdf fandex, would it be ok for me to use official
40k art if I a) stated that I didn't produce any of the art and it is all the property of
GW, and b) that the fandex pdf document is entirely non-profit and completely independent of
GW? Or could I still get sued? (My knowledge of corporate law is lacking, I know)
BTW I also wasn't entirely sure where to post this, so forgive me if this is in the wrong forum.
Thanks
To answer this question you need to be aware of both the exclusive rights of a copyright holder and the fair use exceptions for copyright infringement.
Exclusive rights include:
Reproducing the work
Distributing the work
Displaying the work
Preparing derivative works
Fair use exceptions are very fact specific but these are the relevant factors:
the purpose and character of your use
the nature of the copyrighted work
the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
the effect of the use upon the potential market.
The short answer is that reproducing copyrighted artwork in your own work would constitute infringement. Distributing the work would constitute infringement. Displaying unauthorized copies of the work would constitute infringement.
Now, as for whether such use would be fair, it would be limited and not for profit. Those are pluses in your favor. However, you would be reproducing the work as a whole, the nature of your work would not be parody, satire, or another use protected by the 4th Amendment, and your use could arguably have a deleterious impact on the potential market for the work. Those would be pluses in favor of the copyright holder.
That said, as other responses have indicated, it would be a terribad idea for
GW to sue you over artwork reproduced in a fan dex. Not that they wouldn't, but you should also be aware of statutory damages arising from infringement. If the work in question is
registered, you could be liable for statutory damages, i.e. X amount of money per act of infringement.
If you want to use the artwork but fly under the radar, don't distribute the work publicly, such as on the internet. Keep it on the
DL between your friends and have yourself some relatively innocent fun. If you plan on distributing your fan dex widely, then don't use copyrighted artwork unless you own the rights to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: 
Fafnir wrote:It's not legal, but it's extremely unlikely that anyone will take any action, unless it were to become extremely popular. The worst you'd probably get is a C&D.
As for ethics, it's not very respectful to the artists.
Most artists would probably be flattered if you liked their piece enough to put it in the rules for your
FLGS narrative tournament. In terms of ethics it really depends on how you use the work. If you caused the work to be widely distributed in a manner outside the control of the artist, that's not terribly nice and is disrespectful to the artist. But just for fun between friends...I don't know many artists that would be upset about that, especially those working in an industry in which their works are regularly associated with game-play.
Nobody got a C&D from using D&D artwork to make a Neverwinter Nights character portrait.
