As revealed in a tweet from the official One Piece account, fan artists will be free to produce, sell, and profit from One Piece character artwork stamps for use with the LINE messaging app. As Japan’s favorite mobile messaging platform, and with the country’s penchant for punctuating communication with expressive illustrations, LINE stamps are healthy revenue streams for many otaku-oriented franchises, and One Piece allowing anyone and everyone to use its characters is an extremely generous move.
But this week One Piece, and creator Eiichiro Oda, have announced a new, very permissive policy, as they’re temporarily waiving part of their copyright.
One Piece is a tale of pirates, but that doesn’t mean the franchise takes a lenient stance towards anime/manga piracy.
It’s OK for you to draw and sell you own One Piece character line stamps!” shouts Oda excitedly in his hand-written message.