Years ago Lucas sued the makers of Star Ballz, a parody animated hentai movie.
He lost.
Companies try to make it look like they own everything lock stock and barrel even tangentially related to their properties, but copyright only applies to specific works - that drawing, that movie, that song. And trademark is just a specific name brand and associated logo for a specific field.
You have characters like batman or mickey mouse that are walking logos, but even then I can draw them and make parodies.
Increasingly western companies are going the way of Japanese ones, who for a long time have turned a blind eye to parody works because they help keep the characters in the public eye, help gauging their popularity and are a good source of new talent.
|