I feel it necessary to post this somewhere and it is not to start drama, its just something I should have stated a long time ago. I had already posted this at Hero Gear too.

I will no longer make anything based on copyrighted characters, the main purpose for Hero Gear is to make custom suits to help people who are going out to do good in the world.

That is all.

so my wonderwoman outfit aint happening?

Nope, probably not. Not that you wouldn't look fetching in it. Just that I am tired of people coming to me to make something that there is no definitive look for. Even Superman, basic, right? Wrong. Every other pic you find has different shades of red and blue. The shield is huge, the shield is small. And thats an easy one. Just try to make a suit based on a character you don't know well. Or one that has weird parts to it like winglets on the masks, or those weird shoulder things like Firestorm has. UGH!

I feel bad now... I was going to request a blue spandex bodysuit with a red S on the chest in honor of my name change to "Smega-Rad," but I thought it'd be in poor taste for a serious topic.

I should know better.

LOL Its cool. I just have had some issues in doing certain jobs for people. Plus I just got another request for a Kick Ass suit.

BTW-will be shipping out your stuff tomorrow Mega, will add the Smega suit to it...... Yeah..... Probably not. LOL

Can I request a uniform of another RLSH?

You can, but I would have to get permission from the RLSH first. As far as I am concerned you guys all have copyrights to your look weather you designed them or I did.

Technically a person has a legal copyright as soon as they put their art into a permanent form. For example, if you write an orginal story, as soon as it's written it is concidered your property. Works of art, which is what a costume essentially is, fall under the same principle.

Of course then there is the issue of proving you were the first one to put it in permanent form, which is basically the only reason to actually register a copyright with the Government. For writing, the best thing you can do is what's called a "poor-man's copyright." Put your finished work in an envelope and send it to yourself by U.S. certified mail. When it arrives DON'T OPEN IT. Just put it in somewhere safe. If you ever have to defend your ownership of the work, you let the judge break the seal in court. Certified mail is dated so this means the judge can see for himself exactly when you had it mailed and that you at least had the work completed on that date. For a costume obviously you can't mail the costume itself but you can take many many many pictures of every detail and mail those to yourself. This is what painters and sculptors do.

Keep in mind that while you can copyright the exact costume as a work of art, you cannot copyright an idean name, or concept. For example, you could create a comic book about an alien refugee from a destroyed planet who is sent to earth and becomes defender of humanity and you would not be violating copyright. The names Superman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, etc. are NOT copyrighted. Only the individual comic books are copyrighted. Names are Trademarked in reference to a specific area of use. For example, you could not call another comic book character Batman because the trademark protects the name for that use. But if you invented a new kind of baseball bat holder you could call it Batman as this would be an entirely different use of the name.

Obviously none of this would nessesarily stop DC Comics from suing you anyway with the probably correct assumption that defending your rights will cost you more than you are willing to spend, thus forcing you to settle because you can't afford to fight it out.

Intellectual Property law is something I had to get to know while working as a writer for ten years.

=AP=

Understandable.

But does that extend to generic costumes. You know, like making a blue and red costume with a big red cape that looks somewhat like you-know-who's but without the symbol?

Personally I don't care about the copyrighted part. I just don't want to make suits based on existing characters that have been published in comicbooks. Mainly due to the fact that no two images of the character are exactly the same. Even something as simple as Superman. Some pics his cape is to his ankles, sometimes to his knees. Sometimes his shorts go straight across at the thigh, sometimes they go up a little on the side, sometimes they go way up on the side. Sometimes the blue is cyan, sometimes royal, sometimes even navy.

This is why I brought it up.

so are nazi-frogmen copyrighted?

Champion FTW

@ AP... your breadth and width of knowledge continue to impress me!!

So I guess that Old-school Adam West batman costume I wanted you to make Superhero for Christmas is out of the question huh? Dangit!! Now I need to come up with YET another idea for the man who has abolutely everything?! LOL

To be honest I wouldn't mind making a West costume for SH, but trying to find that blue that they used, not to mention trying to make that cowl is way beyond me.

@Sky: thanks man but save your pennies for your own rig. It's more Inportant. Beside when I finally get around to my 66 batman rig the EXPERTS on 66batman.com will hook me up.

Damn I wish I lived near you Razorhawk I have some great designs for my own outfit that I like but it might be abit much to have us do it together Maybe if you come up to the meet up in June Ill try and have some pics ready for you including the rain suit Short and Long sleeve The leather biker suit and What kind of stuff did the Power Rangers make their uniforms out of? I was thinking of a simular white helmet but my own design on it

I actually think a 66 Batman costume in Superhero colors, with some extra add ons would rock.

That's actually been done in JLU form by Fong believe it or not.