Thursday
Jul092009
Copyright Unfringement
July 9, 2009 Technically, you know, if you want to get all law-abiding about it, you have to have permission to use copyrighted characters on cakes.
Or, you can try one of these techniques:
1. The Alter-Ego:
Of course it's not Thomas the Train. It's Loco Larry, the Mentally Unstable Locomotive.2. The Unibrow:
Is that a seagull on your face, or are you a licensed Disney character? (Seagull. Duh.)3. The Brother By a Different Mother:
"Okay Super...uh...Sam?...just keep your hands where I can see them!"4. The Foreign Equivalent:
"Que Pasa, El Lightningo?""Hola, Senior Rustico."
"Isn't it nice how we are completely original foreign creations in no way affiliated with Disney or its subsidiary companies?"
"Si."
"Si."
Tracy L., Ed S., Erin M., & Emily S., er, none of you are lawyers, right?
- Related Wreckage: Guess Who!
Reader Comments (104)
cw1 made me think, "thomas the angry train who's about to run someone over."
i can only envision the child recipient as an adult, looking back on photos of his/her 3rd bday party and cracking up.
too funny, thanks!
They are all so funny... but I really love the angry Thomas.
Super Sam is making me laugh so hard right now.
I wish there was a whole list of Pixar movies with alter-ego cakes. Take a leaf out of Thomas the Train's book and just change the character's expression. How funny would it be to see a Finding Emo Nemo?
myolderbrothers.blogspot.com
That reminds me: if you buy a cake pan of a licensed character does that get around that sort of thing in the way that making one on your own does not? Inquiring minds and all that...
Loco Larry. Hee! Hee! hee!
Wow, those are horrid remakes. Blech!
Is Loco Larry there to commemorate a 1st birthday, 3rd birthday or 31st birthday. My bet is on the latter!
Not just mentally unstable but also challengend in perspective...
I can hear Senor Rustico's accent loud and clear.
Brilliance!
If there weren't a blatant 1 on that engine, it could be Edward, or someone grumpier than the perpetually cheerful, Thomas. But no, they had to go and put the 1 on.
Can you tell I have a young boy?
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com)
Talia -- nope. The paperwork that comes with the character pans specifically says that they're for home/personal use only
You are allowed to use the licensed character pans and other images on cakes for your own use. Only when you sell them for profit does it become illegal.
Talia,
when you buy a pan depicting a licenced character, it very specifically says that it is for your own personal use only, and that you are not permitted to sell cakes made from it.
Too funny Jen! Love the unibrow "Pinny the Wooh Bear"
Obviously we have all overlooked the nasty trend of rail-rage plaguing trains today.....and I'm stuck on trying to determine if Super Sam has ARMS let alone where his/her hands may be.
OMG! I just spit coffee out from laughing so hard! I can't decide which one is the funniest!!! (although the unibrow Winnie the Pooh holds a special place in my heart; our family has an ongoing "unibrow" joke)
WV: petrosec ~ a Cake Wreck baker's contemplation of what they had just created
We need more of these. Oh yes, we do!
Taylor's Emo Nemo would be awesome, I bet there is one out there somewhere....
Thanks again for the laugh of the day!
Becky
My 2 year old son loved this post! Big Thomas and Cars fan :-D!
freakin hilarious as usual. pure genious.
Ha ha!
So, on the "obviously NOT Thomas" train cake, is the recepient going to be 31, and the maker just didn't have a "1" candle to go with the "3" one, so they decided to frost in the 1?
Just curious.
Awesome post, as always!
My mom had that Winnie the Pooh cake pan when I was a kid and made that cake many times. For the record, the Pooh depicted in the pan had two distinctly separate eyebrows.
Hilarious! I love the Car wrecks the most. They're so close, but so far...
And I love the Emo Nemo suggestion too. That would be funny stuff.
My coworkers know I'm nuts anyway, but I'm giggling like a madwoman in here.
Am I allowed to laugh at Super Sam?
(I'm laughing even harder at Finding Emo Nemo.)
WV: cants
I can has Thomas the Tank Engine cake?
No, you cants. Here's Loco Larry.
I'm with Mandy above on the coffee thing. "Thank you" for making coffee almost come out of my nose due to laughing so hard this morning! See, I used unnecessary quotation marks just for you. :)
Ok, the Spanish cars made me laugh out loud. Hilarious.
So when I bought the Wall-e cake pan for my son's 5th birthday, then paid a local lady to actually make the cake (because she rocks and I am worse than a wreckerator!) I was breaking the law? As far as I know she only made 1 cake, for me, and I got the pan back when she was done...
Now I'm afraid the Disney cops are going to come break down my door!
I found the closest thing I could find to an Emo Nemo cake!
http://www.party-cakes.com/images/Nemo3-D-edited4web1.jpg
www.myolderbrothers.blogspot.com
Perhaps Thomas is angry that they used a pink star tip to finish off the cake around the base. WTF, I'm not a GIRL tank! Duh!
LOL! Too funny! But, well, if you can buy the pan then isn't that technically buying permission to make the cake? Otherwise, what are you supposed to do with the pan? I'd assume the pan-maker is the one who needed permission, and then I will carry on with makinng whatever I want. LOL!
Love your website, by the way. I have told many, many people to come and check it out!
Emo Nemo- brilliant!
I think what makes Pooh positively terrifying, even more than the unibrow (though that certainly adds to the effect), is the horrific red leering mouth. Wow.
Awesome, that totally rocks.
aaah don't remind me of Cars. It was the most boring movie I ever watched.
Sam is hilarious!
Thomas better watch out! Loco Larry's comin' after him. LOL
~Amy B.
I'd be ashamed to show the cross eyed cinderella i made years ago. LOL
Angry!Thomas for the win. XD
"Birthdays, wrecked while you wait!"
Awesome.
WV: worismun. "Copyright infringement worismun, so I'm going to wreck this cake beyond all (w)recognition!"
Maybe all the anger and negativity around the train yard is finally getting to Thomas. Seriously, have you SEEN that show??? A bunch of trains trying to sabotoge and steel each other's work... and letting George Carlin be one of the narrorators was a BAD idea. Shunt means something completely different when said with a Brooklyn accent....
wv: vicepsy. I have a major in vice psy. And a minor in boozewomenandfastcars.
As an Intellectual Property law student, I'll chime in. (though we did not study cake law in class!)
The pan gives you the right to make cakes "for personal use." Now, that phrase has different meanings. In terms of sports broadcast parties, it means the TV can't be bigger than 52" and you can't charge admission to your house. Here, it's most likely going to mean that you can't sell the cakes you are making.
(Now, as for the lady who paid for someone else to use her WALL-E pan, you should be okay--you weren't working on any kind of commercial scale.)
WV: slunking. Time for me go to slunking away back to my law school hole.
I don't know - couldn't fool my 3 year old! She came up behind me and said "ohhhh Rusty and Mater!"
My son has had a Thomas cake the last 3 years (he will accept no other) and I think Angry Thomas would make him laugh, or cry. One or the other...
Thomas the Tank Engine!!!
rotflmao XD
More alter ego cakes please!
WV: I giess that's what it looks like.
I wish I could link you to my local bakery's website - they have some truly awful character wrecks. Unfortunately, their web site is a Flash nightmare.
Too funny! That Loco Larry must be mad about the pink frosting. Sam must be a bit off... you can't do a proper "superman" with your arms pinned in your pants.
Haha, I like how the "Nemo" that Taylor posted has a goatee. Also love the fruit snack fish added to look like he's in a school.
These were GREAT... PLEASE POST MORE!!!!
Please tell me you have more like these! So made my day!!! THX!
Your commentary on these is hilarious !!!
Even if it is illegal, how would they ever police infringement on copyright characters anyway ?
All of those are just too funny, and I can't decide which one I like best.
It's a toss-up between Loco Larry and the cars, but I must confess that the dialog really does it for the cars. Thanks, Jen!
Brilliant (as ever)!
Especially love the fact that the cake that is trying its hardest to look like lightning mcqueen, but is failing in almost every respect, does seem to have an absolutely perfect "rusteze" logo on the hood.....
Loco Larry really made me laugh. He is soooooo much cooler than his evil twin about whom the only good thing is his name (since my son is named Thomas).