Copyright Aid

By your description, this is an adaptation, not a 'new' work. So I think this would be regarded as a derivative work and any existing underlying rights in the original would remain.

Yes. I think these days WHOIS records tend to be redacted to comply with GDPR etc.
Back in the 'good old days' you could do a WHOIS look up and see the name and address of the person that registered the domain, but just did a test and all I get back is anonymous data like the registration date, etc.

The main weakness in this sort of registration is that anyone can submit a work which they claim to have authored, and the companies take such submissions at face value. This is in contrast to most jurisdictions where a state-run registration service exists (USA, India etc), where official ...

I would be cautious about deep linking images on other peoples' sites. Most webmasters view this as stealing bandwidth (i.e. their bandwidth for the image is being used to enhance your site without any benefit to the site that actually hosts the image - costing them bandwidth for nothing in return ...

If they have taken it down under penalty of perjury as a DMCA, then if they are abiding by US law then you should be allowed to make a counter claim (under penalty of perjury):

In order to protect against the possibility of erroneous or fraudulent notifications, certain safeguards are built into ...

There seems to be a common theme with your questions... ;)

In terms of copyright duration under UK law, there is a simple flowchart that can be used
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/copyrightflowchart.pdf

I note however that you seem to be from the USA? So I have done a couple of searches for ...

that (copying biscuit tin lids) is widespread amongst amateur painters

Probably because 1. They are doing it for practice (i.e. private study = fair dealing) not commercial reproductions, or 2. They are so small scale it is either unnoticed or not worth the bother for the rights owner to pursue.

Regarding "MFN with co-pubs and master", according to Universal Music (http://www.umusicpub.co.uk/en-GB/FilmAndTv/How-to-License-Music.aspx):

"Most Favoured Nations (MFN) ensures parity between the rights holders. If the specified rights holder (co-publisher or master) quote higher, then our fee ...

Copyright is the right of the creator of the work - it exists automatically in law from the point of creation.

Besides the potential issue that a quote may not be substantial and unique enough to qualify for protection, you cannot arbitrarily claim a right on someone else's work (it is their ...

Very sorry to hear of the situation and I am sure, as you say, that this was a genuine mistake.

Firstly, to pick up on this point:
can absolve themselves of responsibility for breach of copyright by making us responsible
Surely you ARE responsible if you sourced the image and supplied it as part ...

I agree with Andy here - I can't see that copyright is any part of this issue - As I understand it you are the copyright owner and you are licensing your software product to these two companies. What they have to do to comply with their own national import/export laws is surely down to them.

So ...

I have updated the links in the earlier post - so that should make things easier.

For what it is worth.. The faces of both characters are pretty much the same i.e. it is clear you have copied (albeit re-drawn) the face from the first image.

Thanks for the heads up on those links... I have updated the pages now.

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

The forum config does not have a separate section for PMs on this, so I think the rule applied is the same as for URL posting, which is:

Must be a member for over 5 days and have at least 2 posts published on the forum.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but if you could ...