Have you Guys ever been threatened with C&D letters, blackmails or the like?

[N-drju]

Hello Community,

I was just wondering whether any of you Guys, especially those of you who are professional artists, have ever received any "Cease and desist" letters, legal threats and other alarming notes of the kind.

Not that I received one myself. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever experienced something like this and what precautions (if any) one may take to painlessly deal with such cases.

I actually refer to the type of situations when one is wrongfully accused of some sort of infringement. Say, out of spite or outright malice. Did you ever experience something like that? If you did, how did you protect/defend yourself from a wrongful claim?

[Dune]

Nope, never.

[WAS]

I don't think there is any painless way to do it without flexing legal rights. For example I had a C&D over a anime website that I designed. It was getting lots of traffic and Funimation felt threatened so they tried to say I couldn't use DragonBall Z characters or likeness. So I had to file a counter suit over fair use laws and how its perfectly legal and they must be retaliating based on competition.

Also had one on youtube but it was just a mistake in general and literally had nothing to do with my channel so had to wait for youtube arbitration.

PS i do feel C&Ds are mainly just a way to harass and coercion through legal threat. If they really wanted to hurt you they would just sue like Funimation and Pioneer later tried to do with me over "pirating". But that was also a mistake as they targeted a minor without ever seeking my parents, and also had a fraudulent case based on assumptions of what my site contained beyond the membership system which was on case-by-case approval and obviously didnt approve emails from execs to register.

[N-drju]

For example I had a C&D over a anime website that I designed. It was getting lots of traffic and Funimation felt threatened so they tried to say I couldn't use DragonBall Z characters or likeness.

That doesn't seem right indeed. I once had an occasion to listen to a lecture given by an attorney-at-law who currently works for Deviant Art and who had previously been a part of the Pixar's legal team. He said that fan pages, legally, may constitute a copyright infringement.

However, he also said that many (reasonable) copyright holders actually take it with a pinch of salt. This is because it is in the copyright holders' interests to actually see their products and ideas being forwarded and advertised. Fan art and fan pages may sometimes err on the line of infringement but they are absolutely necessary for an idea, products or characters to propagate to other fans.

In any case, this is why I decided to learn some basic modelling so that I am completely independent from any third-party suppliers in my art.  Of course, with the sole exception of XFrog and most gracious Mr.Lamppost who set transparent rules for the commercial use of their products.

[WAS]

For example I had a C&D over a anime website that I designed. It was getting lots of traffic and Funimation felt threatened so they tried to say I couldn't use DragonBall Z characters or likeness.

That doesn't seem right indeed. I once had an occasion to listen to a lecture given by an attorney-at-law who currently works for Deviant Art and who had previously been a part of the Pixar's legal team. He said that fan pages, legally, may constitute a copyright infringement.

However, he also said that many (reasonable) copyright holders actually take it with a pinch of salt. This is because it is in the copyright holders' interests to actually see their products and ideas being forwarded and advertised. Fan art and fan pages may sometimes err on the line of infringement but they are absolutely necessary for an idea, products or characters to propagate to other fans.

In any case, this is why I decided to learn some basic modelling so that I am completely independent from any third-party suppliers in my art. Of course, with the sole exception of XFrog and most gracious Mr.Lamppost who set transparent rules for the commercial use of their products.

Oh yeah, definitely. It all depends on use. But using likenesses outside of profit and advertising for profit, is perfectly legal.