Sound advice: To print or not to print, that is the question

We’re a company that prints your designs the way you want them, straight forward and hassle-free. And if it were up to us, we’d have no qualms about printing Ryan Gosling’s pretty picture on a T-shirt for your sister’s birthday. Or your football team’s crest on a beach towel to neatly mark your territory on your lounge chair at the local pool. As much as we see the point here, our hands are tied with legal binds. Copyrights and personality rights need to be respected, so we think it’s about time to set the record straight. We asked the people in the know: our graphics and design team. Read their answers to your most frequently asked questions.

I wanted to print a photo of my car – a Citroën – on a T-shirt, but the design got rejected, citing copyright issues. Why would the manufacturer take offense when I print a picture of my own car on my own private T-shirt? It’s not like I’m trying to start my own merchandise or bring the manufacturer into disrepute, is it?

Most manufacturers have officially licensed products. Therefore printing your own shirt may cause confusion with their brand. You can always contact the manufacturer and ask for permission though! From there you would simply need to send us the verification to avoid rejections.

I’ve got a Facebook fan page for my Partner Shop. Can I simply copy and paste image material from Spreadshirt’s homepage and use i.e. image material of the latest campaign?

Under Info and Promos in your account you have access to a Banner service and Publicity materials. From there you can access our Flickr account with high quality product images.

I checked out the European Marketplace and saw a number of really cool designs there. Why can I not order or use these designs on the US Marketplace? And are European copyright laws more easy-going?

Copyright laws are different from Europe to North America. You must also consider the European Marketplace may have official and/or licensed partners that are not partnered with the NA Marketplace.

I wanted to print a photo of George Clooney on a mug for my mum’s birthday and write “Mrs. Clooney” on it. The design got rejected. Can I not use photos of stars at all, and what’s with their names?

We cannot print Names, logos, pictures or other intellectual property of a celebrity. Please note: personal rights are still owned even if the person is no longer living. This would be infringement on his persona rights.

Since there’s a copyright on the logo of my favourite show, we wanted to open a shop by way of spoof while rendering the original logo. The design we came up with was still rejected by Spreadshirt for copyright reasons. Why is that?

Interpretations are still a representation of the original work. Because there is a likelyhood of confusion with the original we cannot print the logo.

Seeing that I can get access to all sorts of photos and designs on Google – and even store them on my computer – why can I not use these images to print them on T-shirts since they are readily available online?

Just because something is available online does not make it free to use, especially when you are selling and reproducing the design.

We have a fan club in support of our favorite singer, and we wanted to print hoodies showing the face of our idol. Spreadshirt rejected this, and we don’t think it’s right as we’re taking up the cause for a star – and we‘re officially recognized as well. How can this be?

If you are official or licensed in some way to copyrighted material we would just need verification to avoid rejections.

Did you find our answers helpful? And are there any burning questions you want us to answer? Any issues you’ve encountered? Please tell us in the comment section below!