I'm innocent .... or am I?

I don't do 'guilty' very well. As my family and friends know you can see it all over my face, I try and abide by the law - and boringly always have done!

So when I was writing the post about the Prada handbag cake last week in the back of my mind I was thinking 'what if a burly Italian from Prada S.p.A comes knocking at my door saying I have infringed their copyright'. When my sister tweeted the picture and Lottie put it on Instagram I got even more twitchy!! But my sensible head was thinking 'It was a gift for a friend, no money changed hands, no commercial profit gained, it's fine, stop worrying.......' 

So what are the rules about reproducing characters and images on a cake? In one of the two 'Character Cakes' books I have by the very talented Debbie Brown's she states 'All the cake deigns in this book are for private use only and under no circumstances would the author or publisher permit or authorise any cake to be produced for commercial purposes'.

Online there are a number of websites (mainly American I should add!) with lots of information on this topic such as www.olivergrimsley.com and www.cakeboss.com, they make quite scary reading. So I'm thinking if I do ever go professional I shall have to be very mindful of sticking to the rules!

As shown above I've done a number of character cakes over the years - mainly for my children's friends and friend's children. I'm hoping that if my past ever catches up with me then it would be defensible as 'fair use'. I hope I never have to stand up in the dock and plead 'Not guilty'.