Allyson, I'm not convinced Susan *is* clearly in the wrong. She debatably was, but as it stands her work isn't referencing Firefly/Serenity, isn't linked to on her site and doesn't contain any copyrighted work.

As it stands now.

What keeps discombobulating me is that some fans seem to be arguing that since she complied with the C&D, she's exonerated from having to pay the licensing fee. I'm not understanding that part of it. Why doesn't she have to pay? What's the reasoning?

She did make money off the violating material before the C&D, right?

Yes.

So she should have to pay.

It seems pretty simple to me.

Because the studio arguably encouraged it, in my mind.

There's many examples. When Serenity was in release in the UK, Universal UK gave me approximately 30 shirts to give away for the UK Serenity site. The ones they gave me were ordered from Cafepress.

Universal's lawyers gave Susan a C&D, which is an indication to stop (obviously), and she did.

Also, regarding the old designs, I'll dig them out. But they were not Serenity logos, Serenity characters etc. I think the one at issue had the rear end of the ship visible, from memory.

3) Universal used the artwork in question on their Serenity prepublicity material for SERENITY. Also, without permission from the designer. It's also visible on the SERENITY DVD. Without permission.

Kevin's wrong on this point. Anything you did on the Serenity site you were giving Universal permission for its further use. For that matter, did you attend one of the screenings? Just going in the door you gave Universal permission to use your likeness. There were big signs and everything.

Not in the UK, Mikey. I should know - I helped organise and sold the screening tickets in the UK for Universal. Also, I helped them run the US website, and I don't think they claimed copyright on posts - I'll check.

Okay, there's no copyright claim, but the T&Cs state:

Anything you transmit or post may be used by Universal or its affiliates for any purpose, including, but not limited to, reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting.

So, anything submitted to Universal they could reuse, but 11th Hour's stuff was not submitted on the site, as far as I know.

I wouldn't know about the UK. My assumption was you were talking US. I also don't recall mentioning posts being covered specifically, but I do recall having to check off on a user agreement that seemed unusual in no way before being allowed to create an account. The usual being, you do it, we can use it.

What I don't understand - and this is for my own edification; I'm not defending either party - is what's legally wrong with creating and selling for profit a work that is inspired by a copyrighted work, as long as the work itself does not include copyrighted images, characters, or text.

Art inspires art, and artists make profit of their art. How is Susan making a t-shirt that says "I find Serenity in Jayne's guns" with a picture of a Vera-looking gun and a couple Chinese characters (she didn't, as far as I know) and selling it illegal? She complied with the C&D, so why can't she continue to sell Serenity-inspired work?