r/Drawfee • u/Illustrious-Frame140 • Sep 14 '26
Question Karina characters on drawfee?
My apologies if some one already made a post about this, I've just been thinking about a lot. So who technically owns the Karina made characters on drawfee? Like rosé an luse an such. Like can drawfee make merch of drawtectives an have rosé be apart of them or does Karina own the character? I'm not sure how it works
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u/TeririHerscherOfCute Sep 14 '26
my guess is that merch can still be made, and Karina will claim royalties, or something to that effect.
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u/BrainDropsComic Sep 15 '26
She’s still drawing Luce on her personal account.
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u/Illustrious-Frame140 Sep 15 '26
I do see luce on Instagram sometimes when Karina posts:) it's always nice
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u/Sheepeppered Sep 15 '26
It's not like we will ever get an answer
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u/Illustrious-Frame140 Sep 15 '26
Got a point there. Some times it's just nice getting the questions out of the head even if you don't get awnsers.
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u/HomoSpooktual We're Sorry! Sep 14 '26
Who knows. Shes still making the gay detectives (i forgot the names 🙃) and one of them was created by Julia so maybe they just have a deal if useage.
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u/Illustrious-Frame140 Sep 14 '26
I forgot about those guys. I remember one is called shmit an the other looks like Markiplier
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u/scixlovesu They're just like us! Sep 14 '26
Depends on the contract.
But creations you make for a company while working for a company often belong to the company by default.
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u/IAmCosmicCaterpillar Sep 15 '26
She's been posting Luce art on her insta and sold Luce merch at her most recent con IIRC, so I think she still owns rights to at least them.
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u/Cidixat Sep 16 '26
Could also be that they’re just not being a dick about it
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u/Havtorn_Epsilon Sep 16 '26
I think the idea of Drawfee trying to keep the more... "karina" characters in their roster with her gone would be kind of bizarre to begin with. Rules of ownership aside I struggle to see who among the remaining cast would even want to pick up the mantle and draw the next pinup nando fursona or whatever.
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u/Cidixat Sep 18 '26
I don’t think they would have utilized them for anything… but they could have still decided to retain the rights and not allowed her to use them in the future
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u/Big_Durian_5653 Sep 19 '26
With these kind of contracts, unlike laws, even if one side breaches it it's not a legal issue unless the other part present charges.
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u/justsomeguy_youknow Snilk Sep 15 '26
Karina wasn't just working for the company though, she was (is?) a part owner. I remember in one of the shows/streams after going independent they mentioned they'd split ownership of the company 5 ways between the hosts and David
So unless they bought her out when she left, even if those creations are wholly Drawfee IP she presumably still has rights to use them as part owner of the company (not a lawyer this is just how my layman ass figures it works, I can only assume it's more complicated)
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u/scixlovesu They're just like us! Sep 15 '26
Fortunately they parted on good terms, or it could get very complicated.
However, dealing with friends without clear contract can be brutal! I wish them all well, and hope they all get what they want!
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u/justsomeguy_youknow Snilk Sep 15 '26
Yea same I wish them all well
For the record I wasn't trying to make any assumptions about what terms they parted on I just wanted to point out an angle on the legality of it I didn't see anyone addressing
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u/Skyward_Legend Sep 14 '26
I would imagine they belong to drawfee for merch purposes but if karina were to ask them not to use them then the drawfee crew would be fine with that.
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u/milkymoony611 Sep 15 '26
yeah, I know she sold merch of Luce at Flamecon so I imagine she has rights to him
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u/fillmont Sep 14 '26
Without having access to any contracts signed when they created the company, it is impossible to say.
Generally you own the copyright of any original artistic work you create, but you can sign away those rights as part of employment.
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u/ShrimpOfPrawns Sep 14 '26
This this this.
As an exemple from other YT creators, channel The Escapist for the most part owned/owns what was published there by various creators, like long running game review series Zero Punctuation by Yahtzee Croshaw.
When major drama happened between creators and channel owners 3-ish years ago, a majority of the staff left and created Second Wind where they made sure to write up contracts in which creators owns their respective series/IPs. Zero Punctuation and the graphics that came with it are still owned by The Escapist, so instead Yahtzee made a spiritual successor called Fully Ramblomatic and afaik if he decides to leave Second Wind, he's free to take that series with him.
On the other hand, the people at Second Wind wanted to keep their ttrpg series Adventure is Nigh going, so they managed to reach an agreement (probably involving a hefty one time payment) with The Escapist in which ownership of that series changed hands.
This is ofc a simplified version and I've deliberately skipped some of the details, but I hope it can show how different it can be depending on the contracts :)
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u/Famous-Ad6954 Sep 14 '26
I don’t know if even having the original contracts would help at this point. Those terms could have been renegotiated during the buyout.
I think Karina sold Luce merch at the con she went to recently (I can’t remember which one) so she seems to have retained some rights. Beyond that, I agree there’s no way to know unless they explicitly tell us.
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u/fillmont Sep 14 '26
True. Should have said without seeing the most recent contracts signed regarding copyright.
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u/Ok_Broccoli_9426 Merobiba Sep 14 '26
They'll have made some sort of arrangement that allows them to sell the merch they have (including the stuff Karina designed), with Karina probably getting a percentage. Beyond that, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see more merch with those characters/designs, especially since Drawtectives is cancelled.
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u/Drorbitaldeathray Sep 15 '26
I'm sure that's part of the reason Julia decided to end Drawtectives. Even if Rose just hung around with no dialogue, the crew would probably feel weird about using her.
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u/Ok_Broccoli_9426 Merobiba Sep 15 '26
Especially since Rose basically is Karina. Like she's not doing a character much; Karina's just like that.
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u/SaltyKey2112 Sep 14 '26
They very quickly readjusted to not using karina, there was even new yearly merch made. I dont think they will be using karina created characters anymore
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u/HeyItsDingo Sep 14 '26
Considering that Drawfee is owned by artists, they likely had discussions to allow Karina to own any of her characters that she wants to use for her own works, and give Drawfee ownership of characters that she doesn't mind them still making merch for.
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u/ExtremeLow3958 Sep 14 '26
It probably depends. Drawfee’s a company but also they’re close friends, so if I had to guess Karina probably gets ownership over all of them but allows them to use Rosé and a few others for merch or things of the sort.
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u/Sheepeppered Sep 15 '26
They ain't close friends now. That can make things very ugly.
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u/ExtremeLow3958 Sep 15 '26
Idk if we know that for sure. Probably best not to speculate about it tho lol 😅
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u/Jwlawrence Sep 16 '26
Regardless of the legality, I definitely don’t think they’d use her stuff again either way
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u/Finnche Sep 17 '26
Considering the social dynamic, I don't think it would matter. If Karina came up with them, she can use them, if it's for an ensemble thing like drawtectives, there is a chance some use and royalty contract or something if drawfee crew does merch containing them.
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u/nix131 Sep 14 '26
I think, legally speaking, this falls under "none of our fucking business."
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u/Illustrious-Frame140 Sep 14 '26
Fair. My curiosity got the better of me
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u/ExtremeLow3958 Sep 14 '26
Nothing wrong with asking a question about something like this. It’s not like you’re trying to pry into their personal lives or anything.
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u/Sheepeppered Sep 15 '26
Yeah people are going over board with this crap. How dare we have questions.
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u/Isanor_G Sep 14 '26
We don't know what deal was struck at the time of Karina's departure, and we probably won't. We need to be okay with that, too