Copyrighted puppets(PUPPET BUILDERS PLEASE READ)

[Onath]

I want to bring this to everyones attention

Last night I got an email it was as follows:

Hi,

I found your website and have seen your puppets they look great. My son is a fan of the Noggin Jack's Big Music show. The problem I have is that they only sell DVD's and not any puppets. My son really wants a puppet I am aware that the puppets are copyrighted material. But, I was hoping you could make one very similar but not exact.

Thanks

My opinion:
I would like to start with I know many people here build muppet replicas for themselves and that is completely cool with me. I don't like the idea though that customers think it is ok to rip some one off if you change the color so it isn't exact. I know I would be pretty bummed if one of my puppets was being made and sold with out my permission. I have heard some people talk about "well it's ok I am just filling a need" well that is BS. My main reason for posting this is that it protects us all if we don't do these jobs of copying other peoples work. I hope you guys all turn down jobs like the one above as well and try and talk people in to purchasing an original design. I would love to here others input on this and whether or not anyone else gets asked to do work like this.

Thanks,
Jon

 

[CBPuppets]

Wow, how informative.....

 

[Super Scooter]

I was asked to make a Kermit once, but flat-out refused. It's not that I wouldn't love to make one, but I agree, it's someone else's hard work. It's another person's art, and to cash in on that would just seem wrong to me. It is illegal, but even if you were never "caught" doing it, I'd just feel wrong about it. I suppose some might justify that it is slightly different than the original, but the intent is still to have something that represents a copyrighted character.

I wouldn't mind making my own Kermit, but I even hesitate to do that.

 

[biblebetty]

I totally agree, I hate looking at ebay and seeing this same guy (he also tries to justify why he does this on Muppet Central) selling Muppet knock offs for outrageous prices (I believe the only one that should charge that amount is the person who created these beloved friends.) I hate to watch people make money off the backs of talented and gifted puppeteers and try to say it's ok. I remember years ago I knew a friend who knew a band and the band asked a writer (who was just starting out) to write a song (it was beautiful). He wrote the song for them and each one of the band member changed some of the words in the song so they wouldn't have to pay him royalties! Now days I don't know if they could get away with that, but back then they could. It was terrible to see someone with so much talent and a great future being taken advantaged of. I guess it's everywhere; there will always be those that will find it easier to take advantage of loopholes, etc to make money. That’s the difference between them and us they can't create anything themselves so they take from others & make money from their hard work & dreams. We do it because it's in our blood, we have dreams and through those dreams we create characters that people identify with, learn from & love. You see these aren't just puppets, when you look at Kermit and you meet Jim you see Kermit in Jim and Jim in Kermit, they are not only our friends they are us. We use them to teach and guide and help us tell others what is in our hearts, what we believe, and our dreams in a very funny and loving way. It doesn't get any better then this.

 

[Super Scooter]

If I saw someone make a knock-off of something I worked so hard on, I'd be very upset. I sort of experienced something like that a while ago, but my puppets were likenesses of someone else anyway, so it really didn't matter. It was just kind of upsetting to see my parody idea taken from me.

As far as music goes, using stuff on the public domain is fine, and stuff like what Weird Al does is protected under parody laws, which is fine too. But what you brought out, biblebetty, just seems completely wrong. Technically, since they changed the lyrics, that might also be considered a parody, and so it would be allowed. But that's cheating.

 

[biblebetty]

believe me I know the drifference between a regular song and a parody. This was not. She showed me the song and five sections of words. these words did not just change the meaning or make a joke. Like (this is just an example)

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, Going nowhere

(These are the changes)
All around me are "very straight" faces
Worn out places, Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily "rat" races
Going nowhere, Going nowhere

This is what i'm talking about, they would change one word in a line or add one word to a line. there were five guys and each one took turns changing out words.

This was the first time I acturally saw someone cheat somebody on copywrittied material.