Customized SJG shirt, non-commercial?

[nyarlathotep23]

If I wanted to make a t-shirt for myself, not to sell, am I allowed to use the SJG logo on, or the smiley pyramid variant? In honor of the 20 year anniversary of the SS raid, I wanted to make one with "Secret Service 0, SJG 1" on it. I've heard rumors of these being made at some point, but have never been able to confirm it.

[Paul]

The answer is, unfortunately, no.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Well you'd have to ask permission from the owner of the copyrighted image, I believe his name is Steve Jackson(?).
The government's copyright website states;

"When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of fair use would clearly apply to the situation"

You have to ask yourself 4 questions to see if it falls under fair use. First, is the purpose commercial or non-for-profit? Second, what is the nature of the work itself? (personal t-shirt) Third, what percentage of the original work is used? Forth, and most importantly, what is the effect of the use on the work's market value? If using that material doesn't hurt the potential market for the copyrighted work, fair use may apply.

If you are making this shirt for yourself, most corporations won't march their legal teams to your front door to confiscate a single t-shirt (legal teams are pretty expensive)

To quote the movie Holiday (1938);

"Someone stop me; O someone please, just try and stop me!"

[nyarlathotep23]

Originally Posted by Hiro Protagonist

Well you'd have to ask permission from the owner of the copyrighted image, I believe his name is Steve Jackson(?).

Well, if I was gonna do it, it'd just be text. But Paul already said no, so I will abide by that.

[SilverFox]

Hiro --

The SJ Games logo is actually a registered trademark, which puts it into an entirely different league with a lot more restrictions.

[Palmer]

Originally Posted by Hiro Protagonist

"When it is impracticable to obtain permission

In this case, it is practical to obtain permission, and in fact the request for permission is already addressed in the Online Policy.

Put a logo or art on a t-shirt or hat?
Nope. This, too, conflicts with our licensing program. Everybody else should wait for our licensees to do the products they're looking for.

This answers the permission question. Not that it was necessary as this situation clearly fails the first Fair Use criteria.

"the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;"

It may not seem obvious, but the proposal actually IS a commercial use, because it is a circumvention of official licensed commercial products. Even if the product does not yet exist, it is still regarded as a commercial usage.

Furthermore, it is not an educational use. Fair use is intended for for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. A major point is whether the use is merely derivative, which a logo t-shirt clearly is.

It is fair use, not personal use.

[Andrew Hackard]

There's really no reason to continue this discussion; Paul's statement was unequivocal and the OP has been gracious in his understanding of it.