The Risks of Copyright Transfer That Illustrators Should Know About

(This lecture is written based on the circumstances of the illustration industry in Japan and on Japanese law.)

illustrations by MORI Ryuichiro

There is something I want all illustrators to know.

It is this:

Once an illustrator has agreed to transfer copyright even once, any subsequent work in advertising or promotion will carry serious risks.

This is a little-known issue, but it is an extremely serious one.

Illustration work for advertising and promotional purposes is generally subject to non-compete restrictions.

In other words, for a certain period of time, the illustrator is prohibited from working for competing companies.

For example, if an illustrator creates an illustration for a poster for a cosmetics company, that illustrator will often be prohibited, for a certain period, from doing advertising or promotional work for that company’s competitors.

If the illustrator does work for a competing company, they may be liable for a substantial amount in damages.

For that reason, the illustrator must continue working while taking great care not to accept work from other cosmetics companies.

However, an illustration whose copyright has been transferred may be used in various businesses without the illustrator’s knowledge.

Let us say that you created an illustration for a poster for Cosmetics Company A, and that your contract prohibits you from working for other cosmetics companies for the time being.

At the same time, let us say that you transferred the copyright to Detergent Company B.

Detergent Company B is a detergent company.

So you transferred the copyright because you assumed it would not be in competition with a cosmetics company.

But Detergent Company B may, in fact, also sell cosmetics.

If that is the case, Detergent Company B can use the illustration whose copyright it purchased for a cosmetics poster as well.

Once a company has purchased the copyright, the company that owns that copyright may, in principle, use the work for any purpose.

It can use the illustration freely, without needing permission from the author who created it.

Legally speaking, this is a perfectly legitimate act, with nothing problematic about it.

If the illustrator were to think, “How terrible of Detergent Company B to use an illustration I created for promoting detergent products in cosmetics advertising without my permission!”—that would be completely mistaken.

Because Detergent Company B owns the copyright, it is not doing anything wrong, no matter what it uses the illustration for.

Imagine that you buy a carrot from a greengrocer.

Whether you use that carrot in curry or in a salad, the greengrocer has no right to complain, does he?

An illustration whose copyright has been purchased is the same as that carrot.

How it is used is up to the copyright holder.

Even though Detergent Company B’s use of your illustration in cosmetics advertising is a legitimate act—

it would still constitute a conflict with the non-compete restriction imposed on you by Cosmetics Company A.

You could be asked by Cosmetics Company A to pay a substantial amount in damages, and you might lose trust within the industry.

Detergent Company B may not be selling cosmetics yet.

However, it may start doing so in the future.

And cosmetics is not the only business it might newly enter.

A company has unlimited potential to start new businesses that differ from its current business.

In any new business it starts, it can freely use the illustration for which it owns the copyright.

And furthermore—

copyright can be transferred again.

Detergent Company B can transfer the copyright it purchased in your illustration to another cosmetics company, Cosmetics Company C.

If that happens, a conflict will arise once again.

And the party to whom the copyright is transferred is not limited to Cosmetics Company C.

It is legal to transfer copyright to companies in any industry.

In other words, an illustration for which you have transferred the copyright may begin to be used by companies in every possible field of business.

It could even be transferred to a company that operates a stock illustration website.

Without your knowledge, your work may end up lined up on a stock illustration website.

The works posted there can be freely used by companies in any industry.

In other words—

if an illustrator who has transferred copyright even once attempts to take on advertising or promotional work afterward, there is a possibility of a conflict arising in every industry.

That is why:

Once an illustrator has agreed to transfer copyright even once, any subsequent work in advertising or promotion will carry serious risks.

Although this is an extremely frightening issue, I believe it is hardly known at all.

I first became aware of this problem in the early years of my career as an illustrator, about twenty years ago.

After noticing it, I began reading copyright-related books voraciously.

I wanted to know how specialists viewed this issue.

So far, I have read about twenty books on copyright.

However, I have not been able to find a single book that points out this problem.

When I asked fellow illustrators about it, none of them seemed to have noticed it either.

Gradually, I began to think, “Perhaps almost no one has realized this.”

At the same time, more and more companies and publishers began demanding copyright transfers.

If I did not speak out about this, illustrators who were unaware of the risk might continue transferring their copyrights one after another, potentially leading to irreversible consequences.

So I have repeatedly written about this issue on my blog, on social media, and on the message board of Illustrators Tsushin, the professional illustrators’ organization that I run.

Thanks to these efforts, this activity has borne fruit, and forced copyright transfers by Japanese publishers have been decreasing.

However, I am concerned that forced copyright transfers may still be common in countries outside Japan.

That is why I have decided to share this information with illustrators around the world.

I sincerely hope that this information reaches as many illustrators as possible.