Legal way of using a Disney Character

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  • What if I want to use a disney character on my site legally where should I contact?
    What would it cost me?
  • This MAY be the link you need: https://licensing.disney.com/Home/display.jsp?contentId=dcp_home_help_help_become_licensee_en&forPrint=false&language=en&preview=false®ion=1

    But this is probably a trademark question, not a copyright question -- it depends on what you are planning to do.

    Janet
  • Your use may very well be a fair use if it's for an educational/non-profit purpose, and you use just one image. Against an argument for fair use is the fact that the image would be considered "highly creative," and since you would like to place it on your Web site...well, that's a really wide distribution. Even though it would not be likely to affect the market for their products, Disney is especially vigilant. I would underline Janet's suggestion above and contact them. Best wishes with your project.

    Cindy
  • The issue about asking for permission versus assuming that your use is covered by fair use and going ahead is complicated. Some argue that if the use is really fair use then you do not have to ask for permission, and asking may actually be the wrong choice -- after all, what incentive does the owner have to give you permission, especially if you can't pay? For example, you can read this selection from Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture, http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-11.html

    That being said, as stated by others, Disney is highly aggressive in IP rights protection!
  • I recently learned that motion picture studios frequently ignore permission requests that don't guarantee a permission fee. For example, if you are the permissions person at Disney, you only attend to the requests from commercial entities that will most likely have to pay. These folks actually have financial quotas that they must meet each year so it is not their interest to spend time with a request from an edu or an org who probably can't come up with the big bucks or might not be charged at all.

    What a racket.

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