I violated the copyright law.
Last Saturday was my Grandson’s first birthday. He seems to have a budding interest in superheros who can fly through the air, so we hosted a Superm** party for him and 7 of his young friends. In order to make this a memorable event (Ok, memories in the parents, probably not the kids), we created from the whole red cloth, 8 tiny red capes emblazoned with the letter “S” and all the copyrighted Superman paraphernalia that we thought one year olds could handle….ie, Balloons, plates, napkins, a poster, and a table cloth with pictures of Superman. Then I ventured down to Walmart (our version of a superstore) to purchase a decorated cake. Lo and behold, they were not only capable but willing to duplicate a cute photo of our grandson onto the cake. But as a last instruction from the baker, “we can’t do any copyrighted material”.
So this is what the silliness has come to. Superman (not even a real character) cannot be duplicated on a cake without paying a royalty for “cake kit” (basically a small superman figurine and some candles) for under $4.00 USD. And then, I can’t put a photo copy or hand drawn image of the same hero without paying a royalty for the 8 one year olds who will scarcely enjoy the patterning of the sucrose decorations on the cake.
So, faster than a speeding bullet, I headed home to do a Google Image search for Superman. There were dozens of images to choose from, but to be on the safe side, I waited until the middle of the night, when no one was watching, and then I selected one in which the “S” insignia on the front of the chest was scarcely visible on the flying character. Then in Photoshop, I cropped an earlier photo of my Grandson’s smilin’ face and pasted it on superman’s body. All this was delivered to the bakery, where I told them that this was actually just his wresting uniform. Here is the illegal photo:
Now, I am not sure that the FBI will pursue the 8 one year olds or even me, for violating what could be a violation….I think they are going to have a hard time finding the evidence…we ate it!
…and the diapers have already been disposed.
