Zazzle removing Serenity products??

POSTED BY: Tiger
UPDATED: Saturday, September 18, 2004 17:53
VIEWED: 21523
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TIGER

Saturday, August 21, 2004 3:59 PM

When I tried to check the products page at Zazzle for my retro poster items, I couldn't log in and a search of the public products found none of the items I've posted over the past week.

I'll try to log in again later today to be sure, but I'm guessing the gig is up. I wonder if the posters that make it clear it's a modern movie and not just a recreation of an old poster tipped them off. ~ sigh ~

I hope they at least ship the orders already made...

I noticed other Serentiy items by Gojiro and some others, and I wonder if they're next.

WILLOWY

Saturday, August 21, 2004 4:21 PM

What? That's weird! I thought you could use these companies to put anything you want on a shirt!

Why would they discontinue when Universal doesn't have anything out there to compete with it? I just don't get it...

"Once, in flight school, I was laconic..."

BRITCHICK

Saturday, August 21, 2004 4:47 PM

I logged on today and found only one Firefly/Serenity related item :(

I had previously emailed Zazzle to ask them for clarification of their sizes. They replied yesterday, and I replied to that email today asking me what had happened to http://www.zazzle.com/contributors/products/gallery/browse_results.asp
?cid=238402095731131619

I'll let you know what they say.

btw, can they do this? It's your own work, it's not as if you have ripped of a (c)image??

Like fireflyfans.net?
Help keep the site running.. Why not donate?
see links on homepage

WILLOWY

Saturday, August 21, 2004 4:58 PM

In the shipping email they sent me, they said that mine was shipped on Thursday, and I could check on my order. I followed the link they provided and sure enough, my shirt was shipped.

But when I tried to follow the original link you posted to buy the shirts, all I got was an error message.

Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser...

"Once, in flight school, I was laconic..."

MAKEROFPATHS

Saturday, August 21, 2004 4:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tiger:

I hope they at least ship the orders already made...

I have confirmation of two t-shirts on their way to me: one today (Saturday, 7:55 a.m. EDT) and one on Wednesday.

That'd be a drag if Zazzle removed your darn fine designs. Maybe it was the phrase "In Theatres, Spring 2005" that gave it all away?

GOJIRO

Saturday, August 21, 2004 8:06 PM

That would truly suck, since I just now finished creating tees and posters of my teaser poster images.

For those that want to get while the gettin' is good, try this link:

http://www.zazzle.com/contributors/products/gallery/browse_results.asp
?cid=238588809259917869&mgmt=off

gojiro

gojiro

NEEDLESEYE

Saturday, August 21, 2004 10:33 PM

I hate to post a big downer kind of message, BUT, here's a possiblity of whats going on with Cafe and Zazzle.
Some, not all, of the images that are being created to sell on their sites have the Universal logo on them. I can see a huge legal issue with that. For one, it makes the item appear to be endorsed by Universal. You're putting their name on this product. The BDM is also Univ.'s product. It could be that is an issue as well. Universal might be afraid of someone misrep'ing their movie.

So, most likely Cafe P. and Zazzle are covering their @sses, not only can Univ. sue you, but them as well. Logos are property and very touchy subjects to toy with.

Regardless, I LOVE everybodys work.
As much as I wanted a few t-shirts myself, I dragged my feet on ordering, so I'm SOL. :{
Perhaps offering designs up for people to print their own t-shirts might be the safer route.

Anyhoo, just my thoughts on the situation.
:/

edited cuz I have a new keyboard that makes me forget how to spell. :{

Keeper of Jayne's goggles. 8)

FLYINGTAMS

Saturday, August 21, 2004 10:54 PM

I'd avoid zazzle like the plague, in their License Agreement you essentially turn over all rights to them. Don't like the smell of that.

GOJIRO

Sunday, August 22, 2004 2:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by FlyingTams:
I'd avoid zazzle like the plague, in their License Agreement you essentially turn over all rights to them. Don't like the smell of that.

That's not exactly true. It was one of the first things I looked into. Zazzle clearly states that the Content creator retains all ownership rights. The content creator does give Zazzle the non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide rights to distribute the content anyway it pleases, as long as it doesn't violate the user agreement. In otherwords, you still keep the copyright, but they can use your image (or words, or whatever) to promote their site around the world. As I understand it.

Then again, legalese makes my head spin, so I might be totally misunderstanding that. But I've had some experience with publishing law, and it doesn' t seem like they're trying to rip anyone off. Well, besides only paying then 10% of the cost of the item.

I think the sticky wicket is the fans' use of the images associated with the show, which are inherently copyrighted. I'm not sure what the law is on that score. I guess I'll find out if they take my stuff off the site.

gojiro

SHINYHAPPYKLIN

Sunday, August 22, 2004 2:58 AM

I got my shirt today....very, very cool! And for those who were asking in another thread about the quality vs. CafePress, they seem about equal.

Zazzle's using a Hanes Beefy-T for the standard shirt, I think CafePress uses Anvil for most of their standard items. I have two CP stores, and haven't had any issues with shrinkage, as long as you don't get some of the junior-size shirts; those - from anyone - seem to be like tissue paper these days. The standard size tees are ok. I think Zazzle's print area is a bit larger than CP, just from eyeballing the shirt, and that's nice sometimes. I just wish both co's. would put the images a bit higher up on the shirts...they always seem too low for my taste, and makes it hard to tuck them in (you lose part of the design).

As far as the copyright issue goes, I guess it was only a matter of time. Copyright is such a gray area sometimes, but I would certainly never encourage anyone to use anything that has a copyright or trade mark on it, or Universal's/Fox's logos, or is an exact duplicate of the show/movie logos. I personally don't have a problem with people using photographs, as long as they're used as "reference" material only, and you're not simply duplicating the image "as is". Warhol art is a perfect example of this issue...Campbell's and some celebs, I believe, took him to court over the use of their images, and lost. However, other courts have ruled that derivative images are copyright violations, so, here we are back in the gray again....

If only there was some OFFICIAL merchandise we could buy now....golly...willing fans, ready to spend money to promote a movie that's not even out yet....seems like a marketer's dream to me!

"We gotta go to that crappy town where I'M a hero..."

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