She Worries Her Fursuit Resembles a Character from an Anime Cartoon

Hello Papa,

I recently just got a fursuit commissioned and I really love how it came out. I posted a vid of me dancing in it on the fursuit Reddit, and one of the replies asked if my suit was one of a character from the show My Hero Academia. After I looked up the character I didn’t think they looked too alike, but I also have diagnosed OCD, with a very long history of obsessions over appearance/originality/etc. This is something that’s really bothering me. I know most people who see the suit don’t even think about this character because inherently they don’t look alike, but it’s tough to see this after getting the fursuit which cost a lot of money.

I've been having intrusive thoughts telling me that MHA is gonna sue me or something and the internet is gonna say that my character isn’t original. I know this is extremely irrational and kind of ridiculous, but it would be nice to get some insight. I will assure you though, that when you see both characters side by side, you may ask yourself why this person asked if they were alike. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great day! :)

EJ

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Hi, EJ,

Not sure if you got my earlier email asking if you could share pics of your fursona and the My Hero Academia (MHA) character, but since I didn't hear back, I will just reply given the information I have from your email.

When it comes to copyright violation, I'm confident you have nothing to worry about. In order for you to be in clear violation, your fursona would need to have an unmistakable resemblance to the MHA character. That resemblance should not only be physical, but also be applicable to things like their behavior, background story, and even catch phrases. As you noted, "most people" who have seen your fursona have not mentioned that it looks like a pre-existing character. You are reacting, apparently, to ONE person making ONE remark about your character. This was, sadly, enough to trigger your OCD issues.

I assure you, EJ, all of this has to do with your OCD talking. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. If it makes you feel any better, I have seen out-and-out duplications of Disney characters at furcons, and nobody was ever sued. For example, I once bumped into a furry dressed as Brer Fox from Disney's Song of the South. I spoke with them briefly, and they were even imitating their speech patterns and mannerisms. This was years ago, and the furry never was sued. And this is Disney, a company well known for filing lawsuits.

Of course, MHA is not owned by Disney. The primary owner of the show is Viz Media, which is not known to be as lawsuit happy as Disney. However, they did recently win a $26 million lawsuit against 100 entities that were profiting off their shows using clear copyright infringement. Again, these were not in the same league as you and your fursuit. They were clearly profiting off stolen intellectual property, which is definitely not what you are doing.

Now, just to cover the bases, there are some circumstances to note here.
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1. If you dress up as a copyrighted character owned by a corporation or individual and you do so for profit, then yes, you can certainly be sued for that. For example, if I dressed up as Mickey Mouse and hired myself out to children's birthday parties and charged the parents money and then Disney found out, I would be in big trouble because they would definitely have a case against me. Disney is probably the most terrifying company in this regard. They even once sued a kindergarten for painting Disney characters on the school's walls.
2. If you are drawing a character owned by someone else but you are doing so for parody or satirical purposes, you cannot be sued--usually. A lot of this has to do with one of two things: 1) trademark violation; 2) use of a real, living person's name. For example, you can't use a commercial logo, alter it slightly, and put it on some artwork or a product for sale if that altered logo could easily be confused with the real thing. Or, of course, you can't just reproduce the logo and slap it on something. One extreme example is that you can't use the Seal of the President of the United States and put it on a website or, say, a book cover, as this implies the President is endorsing that thing. Also, you couldn't, say, name your fursona "Elon Musk" and go to cons telling people to call you Elon.
3. You also can't use satire and parody if it could easily be construed as defamation, slander, or libel. But for that to happen, you would have to be portraying something egregiously hurtful for profit. This is what President Donald Jessica Trump is trying with the show South Park. It's doubtful he will win, though, because for his lawsuit he would have to show that the creators of the cartoon, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, were depicting the events in the cartoon as true and factual, which they clearly are not doing.

Since you already know your fears are "irrational," I hope the above provides a bit more support for an argument you already understand: You are not going to get in trouble with your fursuit because: 1) it really is not that similar to the cartoon character, according to you and most other people, 2) you are not doing anything for profit, and 3) you are not doing anything that can be construed as libelous, slanderous, or defamatory.

You're fine. Relax and enjoy your new fursuit!

Bear Hugs!
Papabear