Continuing on a theme I wrote about earlier regarding t-shirts that raid pop culture with savvy and disregard to copyright. What intrigued me about the t-shirts was how they they went around copyright laws by referencing bits about movies that were juuuuuuuust out of copyright, sort of speak. I also appreciated the obscurity of the pop culture references, it makes for very fun “reading”.
Lately I’ve stumbled upon two similar examples, which further highlight this trend, but in different ways. The first is an example of just plain ignoring copyright. The way the Internet has opened up commerce is that there’s now a supplier for pretty much everything you could wish for. Take this Ironman sticker I just ordered for my laptop from China. There’s no possibility that a company like Marvel (which holds Ironman’s property rights) could keep track of all of these sellers to shut them down (especially since it’s in China), and the thing is, small retailers like this usually have these great niche ideas such as this that probably wouldn’t make out of the corporate boardroom. They’re creating a unique product that I feel benefits Marvel and Ironman more than it hurts them in lost revenue. (Hat tip to /Film, again).
The second example is closer to the t-shirt example: going around copyright by obscuring your references and use of intellectual property. A graphic designer called Albert Exergian has created some really cool minimalistic movie posters for TV shows. Again, he’s not using anything that could compromise him for legal action (save for the trademarks) so he’s flying under the radar in that sense. But I can really appreciate the creativity that came from these legal constraints. He’s given all these TV shows a unique twist, sort of riddling them.
I think we’ll be seeing more of ventures like these that both challenge copyright but also challenge the consumers’ levels of cultural knowledge. I guess you could call it “piracy done with style”? Or something.
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