How are Artist able to sell merch of copyrighted characters based on their art? I see people being able to sell stickers, artwork and other types of merch based on their art.

Question

How are Artist able to sell merch of copyrighted characters based on their art? I see people being able to sell stickers, artwork and other types of merch based on their art.

In: Economics

Answer 1

Your question is a bit vague. Are you asking how artists can sell merchandise of characters based on their own art for which they retain the copyright? Easily. They own the copyright. They just make, or contract someone else to make, the merchandise then sell it.

Or are you asking about artists that make art based on *someone else’s* copyrighted characters and then selling *that*? In which case, they either have permission from the copyright owner or are simply doing it illegally.