Is it legal to use other people's characters ect for making small items for sale?

I want to make charms for charm bracelets and other small things such as 1 inch pin badges to sell on an online store, such as Etsy.com involving characters and items which aren't things I've invented.

For instance a Harry Potter themed bracelet with the miniature books, a wand, Harry's glasses and a golden snitch or a retro game themed bracelet with Pacman, Mario 1up Mushroom, Space Invader and Pokeball. Is this legal?

Also regarding the badges is it legal to have pictures (either official or drawn by myself) of characters say for instance from Harry Potter or some other movie or book?

Final question, is it legal to draw other people's characters (either from a movie, book or game) and sell these pictures as prints, badges, bookmarks or other little things like that?

I know I'd need to put the copyright C and belongs to Warner Bros or whatever, but is there anything else I would need to do to be able to do this legally?

I'm only 16 so I don't have a clue, but I really want to make my own little novelty items like those for sale =/

thanks for your time! =]Is it legal to use other people's characters ect for making small items for sale?
It doesn't matter what kind of words you use in your listing, you cannot use characters you do not own, or have not paid a licensing fee to the owners for their use, for the purposes of selling anything.



You can draw fanart or write fanfiction and post it online for the free entertainment use of others, unless the owners of the properties you depict object to it and issue a cease and desist order (usually to the website that contains it). But you can't sell your work until you have the permission (by paying them, of course) of the owners.
No there is no way you can use copyrighted characters. But since you would only be working on a very small scale you could use the old trick of renaming them; Mario becomes "Super Plumber" and Harry Potter becomes "Teen Wizard". It would still be technically illegal but it shouldn't be a real problem if you are only selling a few for fun more than profit.Is it legal to use other people's characters ect for making small items for sale?
No, it isn't legal, even if you give them credit for it.

You could do a parody, for example make a badge using a different letter in the same style.
I don't think it's legal. There have been discussions about this topic and it's a no no. But you can always get in touch with these companies to find out or read Etsy's terms of use.



http://www.zibbet.com/sellIs it legal to use other people's characters ect for making small items for sale?
Sorry but you can't just put copyright belongs to Warner Bros or whatever.

To use their characters you have to pay them. That is what copyright is for.

The same with copying pictures from books etc. If you look at the front of the book it says stuff about no part of the book being reprinted etc.

You may make a bracelet with a wand and glasses and miniature books buy you are not allowed to connect them to Harry Potter.

Copyright law is a complicated subject and varies from country to country. The best advice I can give is don't go there.
im kind of wondering this too. well im sure you can ill tell you why and how,

well a while ago i ran into this lady who made things like this in ebay of sega characters.

she would get bracelets and stuff and add characters from various places even disney stuff.



as a young boy i had a sega saturn and loved the game nights into dreams and for fun i decided to search it. i stumbled upon the lady and noticed she made a key chain of a character i liked so i bought it. if it wasnt legal i think ebay would have closed it down and she had sold alot of things like this







This is what i think you need to do. in the listing you have to STATE in a EASY TO READ (ie. big font, vivid color, title etc) way that you are making these yourself as unofficial items. you must state you made them and are not authentic pokemon items and you do it as a hobby in your spare time.