Illustrating photos for reproduction on t-shirts

[mandyjsmith]

Hi all,
Is it infringing on copyright if I were to illustrate recognizable images from movies and TV shows and reproduce them on t-shirts?
The images would be very simple and in silhouette (for eg., a solid black illustration of Neo from 'The Matrix', or Brandon Lee's character in 'The Crow', or the car from 'Dukes of Hazard') The idea is that they are instantly recognizable as the movie character or an iconograohic element from that movie, but there would be no reproduction of the movie logo or title.

I may also move onto simple outline illustrations. Again these would be based on shots from the films, but would not in any way be photo-realistic. Would this be a problem?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is a good question. Arguably, these could be seen as a derivative work since they are derivative of the source material. You didn't simply create these images out of your own separate bank of creativity and originality. They are connected with someone else's product, hence the appeal. The bottom line is really the economic impact - would the copyright owners sue you if you didn't obtain a license? I think the answer is probably "yes."