In this recent case, Disney was accused of copyright infringement for using the idea of dog faces with signatures as a tshirt. There was an original drawing by a design company with the same idea and the original creator thought that Disney stole this conception. Initially reading the article, I thought Disney was careful about their “copy” and tried to made sure none of the dog faces or signatures were identical. If this were true, Disney would probably win the case because copyright protects, ” “idea/expression” dichotomy in copyright law, which is supposed to mean that you only protect the specific and defined expression — not the general idea.” But after this article was posted, commenters reading the article actually pointed out numerous faces that seemed to be copied from the original. 21/27 faces on Disney’s copy were similar to the original. The question now is: Can disney be accused of copyright infringement for copying these dogs faces, even though the faces symbolize exclusive breeds that have those types of faces naturally? Disney symbolizes imagination, creativity, and make-believe. But did they actually imagine and create this idea? or is it all make-believe?
Personally, I believe those designs are too similar. Disney was obviously influenced by the original artwork, consciously or unconsciously. The idea of the cartoon dogs with signatures is an original one; had Disney created a t-shirt with just dogs, cartoon dogs, or names of dogs this would not be an issue of copyright. But because the designs are so similar, this is a case of copyright infringement.