BOOTLEGS


Hey guys, I know I've been promising the clip for a week now, but it just not quite ready yet.

Over the weekend I broke out the airbrush & color pencils and tried to finish up this Daniel Craig / James Bond card for Wynn Ryder - Link (I haven't forgotten about you dude, its still coming)

I thought I would post an email I got from Chris Boyd. (I hope you don't mind me reprinting it here Chris) but this is a question I get asked very, very often, and I thought if post it in the blog then I can just point people to it, rather than rewriting the answer over and over and over again.

Anyway Chris's letter went like this

Hi Jeff.
I've been a follower of your blog for a while now, and am a big fan of your work. I know you are very busy, but I hope you don't mind me bothering you with a question. I love your ACEO cards and have recently been thinking about trying to do some myself. I've had no luck at all finding information about copyright issues in this area. What are the copyright concerns/issues if any that you need to deal with when you do your art cards with existing characters on them. Like Star Wars characters for example. Any information you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Chris Boyd
http://chrisboyd-characterdesign.blogspot.com/ (yup, that's his site, go visit him cause he's an amazing artist)


And my response is this

Hi Chris, I hope I can answer your question, but keep in mind that I'm pretty much considered a bootleg card artist since I don't really work for any of the 'so called' official companies. I've also received my share of threats from Topps and a few other places, so I'm probably not the shining example your looking for.

Anyway painting celebrity likenesses isn't illegal. There's been several cases where celebrities have sued artists and lost. One of the more recent ones was Tiger Woods going after the sports artist Rick Rush, Tiger lost because the artist was protected under the first amendment and his right to free expression.

That's pretty much where I try to operate, in the vague area of my own personal self expression "Its my art, I created it, so I figure I own it" whether or not that would fly in court, I don't know? I've defiantly crossed the line a few times, I know that, but then again I don't necessarily care if what I'm doing is considered right or wrong.

My advice if your going to try doing bootleg cards is, make sure there's a back door in your place. Keep all the money you make stashed in a bus locker somewhere. Learn to sleep with one eye open and, remember how Mad Max had the dynamite strapped to his gas tank? Well rig your drawing board up with something like that, just in case.

See you next time

6 comments:

Manu said...

Hey Jeff ! Nice to see you paint again ! Your Dan Craig is beautiful ! See u soon ! :D

Sean Tiffany said...

And don't forget about the knife next to the switch on the dynamite when someone tries to get you to disarm your drawing board...

"A quick man...a crafty man...might just have a weapon under there..."

Manu said...

And be sure to always have a rope if you live at least on the third floor ! (: o

Jeff Lafferty said...

LOL ... Oh lordy, you guys are having way to much fun in here. Thanks for the comments guys :)
Jeff

Unknown said...

Ha Ha. Hey Jeff. No problem at all. I'm glad you posted it up here.

Your reply is a classic. (and actually very helpful)

Thanks for the link. My blog is getting the Jeff Lafferty bump :)

And that Daniel Craig Bond card is looking very cool.

Jeff Lafferty said...

Thanks Chris :)
Jeff