woman charged for selling 6.5 million yen in illegal demon slayer cakes

[CountFrylock]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-11/woman-charged-for-selling-6.5-million-yen-in-unauthorized-demon-slayer-cakes/.179475

[PokeNirvash]

She sold forty cakes. That's as much as four tens. And that's terrible.

[Chapinator_X]

This story just sent me down a rabbit hole about whether copyright laws apply to selling cakes or foods dedicated to characters you don’t have the license for. 

I’m so used to seeing second-hand Disney and Mickey merch that it never occurred to me that you would need to have a license to commercially sell a cake that looks like Olaf or Zenitsu at a bakery. 

[Jman]

8 minutes ago, Chapinator_X said:

This story just sent me down a rabbit hole about whether copyright laws apply to selling cakes or foods dedicated to characters you don’t have the license for. 

I’m so used to seeing second-hand Disney and Mickey merch that it never occurred to me that you would need to have a license to commercially sell a cake that looks like Olaf or Zenitsu at a bakery. 

From what I understand, big chains need to get the license (Walmart and the like) while local bakeries can’t advertise online.  It’s like how a custom costume shop isn’t technically making a Batman(TM) costume, but a generic Bat-guy costume. 
 

This owner advertised online and since Japan is way stricter about this sort of thing, sent in the lawyers.

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

3 minutes ago, Chapinator_X said:

This story just sent me down a rabbit hole about whether copyright laws apply to selling cakes or foods dedicated to characters you don’t have the license for. 

I’m so used to seeing second-hand Disney and Mickey merch that it never occurred to me that you would need to have a license to commercially sell a cake that looks like Olaf or Zenitsu at a bakery. 

What did you find? When I was reading the article in the OP I had the same thought you had.

Off-topic, but I read in an interview with ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman that copyright laws in Japan and America can differ significantly. He's lived in Japan for some years now and recently released a covers album of songs of Japanese artists. In Japan, not only do you need to pay the original songwriters songwriting royalties to release covers of their songs, you actually also need their express permission to do so. In America, no permission is needed. As long as you make sure the songwriters get their royalties, then you're good.

 

[Chapinator_X]

4 minutes ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

What did you find? When I was reading the article in the OP I had the same thought you had.

Off-topic, but I read in an interview with ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman that copyright laws in Japan and America can differ significantly. He's lived in Japan for some years now and recently released a covers album of songs of Japanese artists. In Japan, not only do you need to pay the original songwriters songwriting royalties to release covers of their songs, you actually also need their express permission to do so. In America, no permission is needed. As long as you make sure the songwriters get their royalties, then you're good.

 

Nothing too extensive. At most, you have a lot of articles that mirror these warnings, but these are going off of American laws:

https://cakeboss.com/selling-cakes-with-copyrighted-characters/

But like with what Jman was saying, alot of it  is determined by what can be publicized or how it’s sold. I’d imagine you could sell an Demon Slayer cake if you use a pre-bought topper or dance around where the characters are from. 

It might also be why some ice cream shops might rename the “Superman” flavor to avoid legal issues while other shops know they’re small enough to take the risk.  

[Vamped]

So ... if she didn't put it on Instagram, she would be fine? 

 

>.> 

 

[EmpressAngel]

If people want Rengoku in their mouth and Shuisha's not gonna fulfill that need on their own, it should be fair game for anyone else to step in.

[Jman]

23 hours ago, Vamped said:

So ... if she didn't put it on Instagram, she would be fine? 

 

>.> 

 

I imagine she would need to sell it as a “custom art piece as the client dictated” in a similar manner to doujin.  When you make it appear this is mass production, the lawyers come in.

[CountFrylock]

the fact she got away with it for so long is nuts

[EmpressAngel]

Looking at this artcle again, it's actually kinda fucking bonkers she got sued over it. These weren't mass produced cash grabs, they were custom-designed cakes that her customers made specific requests for. Like, look at this:

I do baking as a hobby. If those characters are made of anything edible instead of just a piece of paper, that's literally hours or even days of work depending on the technique used. Compare that to the actual bakery that's licensed to make it, and the legit ones look like shit. Those are clearly just stickers made with an edible printer and a quick frosting border around it. This lady shouldn't have been sued, they should have authorized her to make the damn things and raked in twice as much in licensing fees.