Affogado

Newbie
Game Developer
Jun 12, 2021
93
160
parody is legal, and i have not seen disney take down any porn games
Parody is legal but fair use protections aren't automatic and inferred; you have to prove what you're doing is parody under the laws of whatever jurisdiction you're being sued under. In the US, courts consider:

* the purpose and character of the use
* the nature of the original work
* the amount of the original work used
* the effect on the market value of the original work

But the only thing that really matters is if your lawyers can argue better than Disney's that you're trying to make meaningful social commentary and not just money.

As other posters have said the best defense isn't a fair use legal claim, it's going under the radar and hoping the disney panopticon decides you're not worth the effort.
 

RiloLaki

Member
May 16, 2022
326
1,366
parody is legal, and i have not seen disney take down any porn games
Depends. If there's commercial intent behind it, such as selling directly or utilizing Patreon? Nope, no way, no commercial intent allowed. The exception is "likeness" - you can use a likeness as parody, so long as you don't directly call it by it's copyrighted name. Which is how South Park gets away with their parodies, and how Marvel got away with putting E.T., Boba Fett, and ALF in their comics in the 80's (below). A company can, and will, go after someone legally if they believe the parody would damage the brand, such as images involving violence and/or pornography, and/or if it would confuse the market/consumer. They don't have to be in the legal right to do so - they just have to have more money to use in the lawsuit than the one(s) they're suing to make them back-off.

(This is how many corporations use the courts - as a bully tactic. Which would change overnight if a law were passed & upheld on the US that if someone should sue someone else and lose, then the plaintiff would have to pay all legal fees of the defense, but I digress.)

Now, just because Disney hasn't sued someone for porn parodies doesn't mean they won't. Back in the 70's Disney sued a group called "Air Pirate Funnies" due to selling comics using Mickey Mouse in both name and appearance. Earlier this year, Disney sued a "Disney Simp" for selling fake theme park merch. In '89 Disney sued a day care for using likenesses of their characters. in 2016 Disney successfully sued and won in Chinese court against a Chinese company using the likeness of "Cars" characters. They're currently (as of the articles I've read) involved in a lawsuit with Redbox, which Redbox is losing.

The main take away of these (and dozens of others) is that Disney will sue, but so far only if those violating the "fair use/parody" exemptions are doing so in a way that hits their bottom dollar - fake merch, fake comics, unlicensed screenings and/or distribution of their movies, etc.

So far Disney has ignored the porn (yay!!). But this doesn't mean that they always will. Especially depending on how the current lawsuits between Disney & South Park go. Remember the "Air Pirate Funnies" I mentioned? The other reason for the lawsuit was for the way these comics mocked & ridiculed Disney as a company. Sound familiar? Sure, South Park has successfully defended such parody lawsuits in the past, and I expect them to do so again. However, I can also see an instance where South Park (or a future defendant) uses the various ignored porn parodies in their defense against Disney, with Disney being forced to go the full "nuclear option" against porn parodies (even if it's just a few dozen DMCA notices that scares everyone into removing Disney-parallel parodies from their sites) just to win these/future lawsuits.

The key takeaway is distribution. Pre-Interbutts, it was difficult to sue against porn parody as, well, who do you sue? Can you even find the original artist? The people doing the printing & selling? It was just too big of a headache & expense to go after such a niche market. Today? Porn of Disney is pretty much everywhere online, and people aren't afraid to attach their name/alias on it. But that also means that it would just take a quick DMCA notice to, say, Google to scare everyone else. The question for the courts, if anyone is even interested in defending Disney porn in courts, is if Disney even can sue for porn parodies after all these decades of ignoring them.

Uhg...too early in the afternoon for all this typing...I need more whiskey...

Uncanny X-Men #244:
1702479379592.png

It took a few decades, but a lot of these aliens are now owned by the same company that owns Marvel! Oh, and I also included an early example (I think from the late 60's?) of what Disney has ignored:

1702483453811.png
 

Erebus69

Member
Mar 28, 2019
426
599
Challenging the IP of a character in court can be a double edge sword. If the the defendant wins it diminishes the value of the IP and can possibly lead to to dismissal of the IP rights in extreme situations. So sometimes it better to let the intrusion exist because it has no real effect on the main stream business us of the IP
 
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