Normally I don’t talk about unofficial and unlicensed Ghostbusters t-shirts that exist on apparel sites which sell unlicensed t-shirts for 24 hours to avoid “quick” lawsuits. I could imagine for Sony (and other studios) it’s a waste of resources and perhaps finances to C&D all these unofficial and unlicensed t-shirts (or prints) that go away in a short period of time. Of course for the studios profiting off the logos and trademarks is well within their rights.

It can be a double edge sword for fans and artists. If the apparel companies who have the licenses (honestly without checking, I don’t know what company holds the license for Ghostbusters™ t-shirts, still Mad Engine?) would actually get creative with the designs, ghostheads may not feel the need to support talented artists by purchasing these unlicensed works. I’m sure many of the artists are fans themselves.

I don’t know any of the legalities to what I’m about to say. I wonder if Sony or the official licensee could buy the better (sorta like a commission) designs to use for t-shirts and prints. As Sony owns pretty much everything anyway they could just “take” the designs. Which would bring up other legal issues. This is why companies don’t take submissions to avoid so called copyright issues in the first place.

I understand too with the unofficial and unlicensed designs why the average artist and fan throws a design together and hopefully makes quick money with it. Some designs tie together multiple properties. The costs to get permission and multiple licenses would probably be astronomical. Which is unlikely to happen unless maybe, just maybe two corporate companies were working together on something. Then they would just make their own designs anyway.

I’m not apart of these quick retail sites, I have made my own unofficial designs through the years. Just because you design a t-shirt doesn’t mean you’re going to profit off it. I’ve known that first hand since high school. For a project in Commercial Arts, I made a t-shirt (sports wear, it was a different time) and my family did a run. We never did sell them all.