How Long Until This Gets Shut The Fuck Down?

http://www.htmlcomics.com

This should make for interesting news over the next week or two...

I Really Suck At These Things...

But when the app is using SHAZAM in a manner that seems like it is meant to call to mind the Whiz/DC Comics franchise, is there some way DC has a case against them?

Blizzard Response Regarding Screen Grabs For Webcomic With Advertising

I received the following response from Blizzard when I posed a hypothetical question to them regarding the use of screen grabs to create a webcomic on a page one sells advertising for:

From: machinima@blizzard.com
To: Kevin Huxford
Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:01 PM
Subject: RE: Fair Use Question
Mailed-by: blizzard.com

Greetings Kevin,

Thank you for your patience! I am afraid that this is against our current policies and I apologize for any inconvenience this causes. We do wish you luck with future projects and take care.

From: Kevin Huxford
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 12:00 AM
To: machinima@blizzard.com
Subject: Re: Fair Use Question

Still hoping to get an answer on this. Thanks!

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Kevin Huxford wrote:

What is Blizzard's policy on screen shots being used to create a webcomic and then selling advertisement on the webcomic site? I'm worried that compensation for ads on the same page as the webcomic would constitute commercial use.

Thanks,
Kevin Huxford

Folks, Blizzard owns the images. Using screen grabs for 100% of a comic that you profit on without any licensing fees paid to the owner of the images is a violation of copyright. Doing it rarely might be able to skate on parody exceptions; doing it in perpetuity will not.

Pwned, indeed!

A Big Thank You To Cru The Dwarf Fans!

Sean F. directed you all to my blog entry contending that he is infringing Blizzard's copyright by using barely altered screen grabs of World of Warcraft to "create" his webcomic, Cru The Dwarf.

I'd say he added about 200 hits to my usual Monday traffic, making this one of the site's best days in a long time. The hits-to-defense-of-Cru ratio is about 66-to-1.

Drunkduck.com Content: Copyright Theft?

In my advertising, there's this DrunkDuck.com hosted webcomic, Cru the Dwarf. Looking at it, it sure appears that they're just using screen grabs from World of Warcraft.

I'm sure Blizzard is cool about fans using images to make cartoons and all, to some extent...but they are probably less cool about people doing it on a regular basis for profit (as the page linked to is ad-supported).

It should be noted that nowhere on the page linked to is there currently any credit to Blizzard Entertainment. The only copyright line is for Sean F, which only makes the possible offense worse.