"Personal use" of copyrighted material?

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• September 12, 2021 @ 7:41pmElissaD says:

  I am an amateur artist, and I love making t-shirts for myself. Usually the images are of characters from shows or movies I like and may or may not be my own original drawings of said characters. Am I breaking copyright law even if these are personal projects and I am not mass producing or profiting from the creation of these shirts? Could I make a shirt like this as a free gift to a friend as I would not be making money from the image or mass producing the shirt?
• September 26, 2021 @ 9:41amlawyersara says:

  This may be a copyright issue as well as a trademark issue, actually, depending on whether there is a trademark on any of the characters from shows/movies you are using.

  In both Trademark law and Copyright law there is a concept akin to fair use, where without permission one could use a small amount of a copyrighted work.

  I have created a video all about fair use and I think it might be useful to you: https://FairUseVideo

   

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