Q: Arcade cabinet side art for personal use. is this derivative work?
I am making an arcade cabinet to sit in my basement and to be played by my family. The side art is a compilation of artwork from artists who drew video game characters but I changed the art so the characters look like members of my family. The poses, shading, expressions still look very much like the originals, but I changed skin tone, added glasses, changed clothes, hair, etc. This is for personal use, is this okay? Also, the background is from a cartoon and is unchanged. I just pasted the background into the art.
A: Using the work and creations of others is definitely infringement even if there is no economic benefit.
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