A Copyright question:

[Alexandra-the-Great]

Soon, I am thinking about selling plushies on Etsy soon. They will be dolls that look like characters from different movies and books, such as Batman, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Watchmen, and so on so forth.

I was wondering if I am legally allowed to do so. On Etsy, there are quite a few people who do something similar, and they seem to get away with it, but I just wanted to make sure I can as well. The dolls will obviously look like the character they are designed after, so I am not sure if it would fall under copyright laws or not.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[CraftyChef]

If you tried to sell those things to a retailer they would most likely ask you for a copy of your licensing agreement from the characters' copyright holders. So, the answer is no, you can't sell those characters. Sure, you might get away with it...or you could be one of those extremely unlucky ones who don't.

Best advice: come up with your own fun characters and build your business on your own ideas and you won't have issues like this to deal with.