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AI Didn't Break Copyright Law, It Just Exposed How Broken It Already Was
(jasonwillems.com)
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this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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Fan art is not illegal. As long as you're not selling it, it would generally fall under fair use.
Off the top of my head, I know both Disney and Nintendo have sued people for making fan art. Fair use doesn’t explicitly allow you to make fan art, regardless of its transformative nature, and whether or not you owe Disney hundreds of thousands of dollars for drawing Mickey depends on court review on a case-by-case basis because it’s not technically legal in the US. It may also not be technically illegal, but that doesn’t mean a corporation can’t sue you and be awarded millions in civil damages if they think you profited off the art in some way.
A quick google search will source you lawyers saying such.
Just to clarify, somebody suing another party doesn't automatically mean that party broke any laws. Big companies especially will sooner sue the little guy even if they did nothing legally wrong because the know the little guy most likely won't have the resources to fight it, even if they would have won.
Yes, that’s literally what I said. Fan art may not be illegal, but it’s not legal either. The point is moot, however. If a corporation with billions or trillions of dollars can sue you with impunity, while even a meager defense can financially ruin you for life, then there is no practical difference between a legal and illegal act. The fact remains that fighting someone like Disney over something like fanart is beyond the ability of nearly everyone on earth.
Yeah, I was adding onto it. Cool your jets. We're in agreement.
You're right, that was my bad
No worries mate ✌ have a good one
https://cbaatthebar.chicagobar.org/2022/11/11/the-fine-line-between-fan-art-fan-fiction-and-finding-yourself-sued/
It's copyright infringements but like I said, most won't bother fans not making a dime. There's economic advantages to having fans create and distribute your content for free. A company can choose to copyright strike anything with their characters in it at anytime.
Skimming the article seems to affirm that the danger is profiting off of fan works, not the works themselves. Just because a company can sue you over it (even in situations where you made no profit off of it), that doesn't mean you broke any laws. You can be sued for anything, its up to the court to determine if a law was broken.
Seems pretty clear. It's at the discretion of the owner. The profit aspect doesn't matter in terms of the law, it just makes it likely that companies will go to court over it.
Notice how it says with copyright holders and not with copyright laws.