Joey

Seeing a lot of obtuse quotes to this so I’m just gonna point out that’s how things have ALWAYS worked!! Just by copyright law, the artist owns what they make unless there’s a contract stating otherwise. And if you plan on making money of of an artists work, guess what, THAT ARTIST DESERVES A CUT OF IT. Sometimes that’s with a one-time-fee, sometimes that’s with a percentage of the profits, sometimes it’s a fee that only covers a certain amount of sales before it needs to be renewed. It’s how it’s been FOREVER. If you don’t wanna deal with an artists commercial fees, then find an artists who offers lower ones or go take advantage of one who doesn’t know any better, I guess. Honestly, I see some of y’all get mad at corporations for not paying comic artists enough for concepts/poses/iconic panel spreads being used in TV/movies after they signed a contract and then turning around around and say artists are being greedy by asking for a fee/percentage for using THEIR WORK to make money. “But it’s my character!!! I can use it for whatever I want because I own the rights to my OC.” And the artist owns the rights to the art they did of that character. It’s not even a terms of service thing, it’s copyright law. If someone does fanart of Spider-Man, Disney cannot freely use that fanart despite it being of their character. Disney could always send a C&D and get the artists to take the fanart down if they feel like it violates their copyright, but they CANNOT use that fanart themselves to make money. Just like I can’t sell prints or stickers of fanart of my character, Jaki, just because I own the character. It’s not MY work. They also cant sell merch of my character without a licensing fee. It works both ways. “But this person is not gonna make THAT MUCH money, they have like 9 followers!” Cool, does the artist get a bonus when it goes viral and sells more than expected? And actually, there’s a contract for that! You can set up a “this much of a fee for this many sales” sort of deal which then has you pay more only if you sell more than is listed in the contract. Like “$50 per 200 sticker sales.” Respect artists rights and work, if you want to make money off your character without paying someone else then learn to do the art yourself.