Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Without seeing the images and your permission to create knockoff images, which I hope is in writing, I'd say your chance of being sued is somewhere between 5% and 40%, with a lot of the variability depending upon what you DO with the images you create and therefore the amount of harm the copyright holder can claim. In addition, the chance of being sued successfully is somewhat lower than the chance of being sued, because you might defend the suit and win -- but all intellectual-property litigation involves big up-front costs. Why don't you just ask the other party?

The answer depends on the nature of permission. By changing substantive elements of the creative work you are then making a derivative work. This is an infringement absent permission. You say you have permission to use the work. You should just make certain that the copyright owners take no issue with you making these kind of changes to their original works.

I ma not sure what my colleague was discussing above, but the odds of being sued in this context is slim to none especially where you already have confirmed permission to use the underlying material.

If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

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DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.