Is Copyright Very Serious?

Community Episode Fan Community
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Hi everyone,

I’ve been wondering if copy right is a very serious matter when mentioning real movies and TV shows and characters in said movies and TV shows. I’ve seen people put the * to not fully say a real band before and she put in a reader message saying “copyright who?” I’ve also seen people straight up say Grey’s Anatomy and American Horror Story with no censor and their stories are still up. I also saw on a story one time, instead of saying Wonder Woman, they said Woman Wonder. But my question is, are we or are we not allowed to mention real movies and tv shows and characters in our script?

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You can always look further into the content guidelines

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You are allowed to mention actual tv shows and characters, but they must not drive the plot of your story.

Songs, Brands, Celebrities and Children:

  • Songs and Brands
  • One-time use of a very limited amount of song lyrics may be allowed. Characters may sing these or they can appear coming out of radios, etc.
  • Passing references to brands are allowed. An example being: “I love Oreo cookies.”
  • Brands cannot be a plot point or drive the story.

Real People and Places

  • No celebrity images or illustrated likenesses are allowed on backgrounds, overlays or story cards.
  • References to celebrities are allowed in stories, e.g.,: “Taylor Swift is my favorite singer.”
  • Celebrities may NOT appear as characters.
  • Celebrities cannot be a plot point or drive the story.
  • Story cards, backgrounds or overlays cannot contain brand references or celebrity likenesses

excerpt from guidelines

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So like if I wanted to put Chris brown in my story but named him Bhris Crown would that be okay?

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You really should avoid putting any real celebrities in your story. Just invent a rapper for your character. Like they can in general be a fan of Chris Brown or just mention in passing but if you need your characters to attend a concert or something then make a fake rapper.

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To simplify the rules:
You can mention celebs/characters/tv show names in passing (ex: a character saying “It’s not my fault, I watch a lot of Grey’s Anatomy” or " I love that new Jennifer Lopez song!" )

However, you can’t

  • have a story about Meredith Grey, doctor at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital with a bestie named Cristina Yang.
  • use a real celeb or person as a character, or design a character and name them after/similarly to a real person or celebrity (considered ‘using their likeness’). Your character can’t be auditioning for a Grey’s Anatomy role, etc. :slight_smile: The real person/brand/company etc can not be a plot point or ‘driving force’ in your story.

Also, to answer your title, yes copyright is very serious. Not only could your story be taken down and your account suspended/banned, but you also run the risk of the person/company who own the copyright, suing you for breaching their copyright. That’s why we warn people against searching google and pinterest for artwork/backgrounds etc-- they’re almost always copyrighted to someone or some brand/company/website. :woman_shrugging: Hope this helps simplify since Episode’s Guidelines wording can be a little broad/confusing. :slight_smile:

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I’m pretty sure that’s allowed. Just don’t try to make your character resemble the physical appearance/lifesyle of the actual Chris Brown.