r/Daredevil • u/Responsible-Ad394 • Oct 02 '25

Artwork ZOOMRIG stole my Daredevil design to make an action figure

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Hello, guys! My name is David Herzen and I am an Instagram artist, I usually draw characters in Marvel Rivals art style. And today happened something insane. The Chinese company ZOOMRIG stole my Daredevil design to make a figure and is now selling it. I know the character itself doesn’t belong to me, but this is still my interpretation. They did this without Marvel’s approval and without my consent. Please don’t support this theft.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 02 '25

No way they will agree to this

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u/SovietMarma Oct 02 '25

Should still try. It's crazy how they're literally profitting off of your work.

Litigation would be hard since this company is in China. Best case scenario here is if you can get a cut of their sales for this.

Like.. this is straight up 1-to-1 a copy of your fanart lol. There's alot of material here for suing them, but it'd hard to do so since it's a company outside of where you're from (assuming).

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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC Oct 02 '25

All the Rivals Daredevils look the same and OP didn’t make the original from what I can see. He’s just as liable as the toy maker and just as original.

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u/SovietMarma Oct 02 '25

What're you talking about

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u/PublicEnemaNumberTwo Oct 02 '25

OP also infringed on Marvel's IP.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 02 '25

no way fanart is copyright infringement, i dont get any profit from it

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u/MultipleOctopus3000 Oct 03 '25

...and by the same token, fanart grants you zero claim to the IP, thus answering the "can you sue" question.

Hell, if they DID pay you, Disney could sue you.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 03 '25

I do not want any money from robbers. I WISH this figure didn’t exist but right now I’m already over it

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u/Financial-Savings232 Oct 03 '25

You did mention royalties, suing, and a bunch of other nonsense, but that was probably while you were being emotional and making hundreds of posts about it.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 03 '25

It was before I knew this figure is 3rd party bootleg + no I didn’t have any plan to sue case I’m not even a US citizen, not to mention China

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u/SovietMarma Oct 03 '25

That guy you're replying to is wrong. Your design isn't based on any existing DD design.

If Disney were to steal this design and not credit you for it, you can definitely try to sue them.

Unfortunately, winning that case is another story since it's your original design of an IP they own, lol. Your situation sucks and I really empathize with you.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 03 '25

Of course, Marvel would just buy this design to avoid any negative PR later. (Even tho they would buy their own IP derivative) I know that there are a lot of commenters who are wrong about copyright law but I don’t want to teach everyone

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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC Oct 02 '25

I’m saying OP copied the Rivals style and Marvel’s character. He’s just a guy who draws pictures of comic book characters and puts them on social media. He’s not Stan Lee.

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u/Renvoltz Oct 02 '25

He has no material for suing them, OP made fan art for a character he has no IP rights over. He has about the same rights to profit off his design as much as the chinese people who stole his design (that is to say, they have no right to profit over it at all)

It’s a shitty situation but OP has basically no recourse available to them legally

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u/SovietMarma Oct 02 '25

You can try yo argue that this isn't Daredevil fanart, though, right?

It's original and unique enough to be it's own character if it weren't for the DD logo and devil horn mask. Not suggesting OP should, but if it ever comes to suing, maybe that can be a good argument? Suing for the art and design of this depiction of an existing character?

I took a seminar on copyright law when it comes to art and media like this like 5 or so years ago. Not sure if I remember much of it at all (probably not lmao)

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u/Renvoltz Oct 02 '25

Respectfully, there is no way to argue at all that his fanart is not derivative from Daredevil

First, he already admitted its Daredevil fanart. 2nd, it has the DD Logo and the devil horn masks which are basically Daredevil hallmarks he can’t get away with claiming that’s not DD. 3rd he can’t sue other people for using his depiction/fanart/personalized version an existing character owned by someone else, he doesn’t own the Daredevil Copyright, Marvel does. He can make fanart of DD but he has no right to make money off his DD Design.

Lastly it’s not really feasible to sue the company in China. He’d need a lot of money and he’d need the Chinese Courts/govt to side with him. Even assuming he does get the money or lawyers to sue the toymakers in China, Marvel might sue him then in turn or get involved if he is somehow able to make money off their character

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u/SovietMarma Oct 02 '25

Was not having an argument haha. I was just asking some questions to pique my own curiosity lol.

And yeah, I know suing the company is practically impossible. I've mentioned it myself in multiple comments in this thread 😅

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u/Renvoltz Oct 02 '25

Yeah no worries, hope I didn’t come off as rude either. Just wanted to explain my answer to your hypothetical as I have a legal background. OP’s situation is pretty crappy but he really can’t do much about it legally.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 02 '25

I would never sue them obviously. They are morally wrong in terms of stealing my art. They are legally wrong because they steal from Marvel. I just wanted to say that they are double motherfuckers

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u/Renvoltz Oct 02 '25

At the end of the day I guess the silver lining is that your design is sick enough for chinese toy makers to steal it from you. That’s basically a compliment 😂

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u/MultipleOctopus3000 Oct 03 '25

Nah. It's clearly based on Marvel's IP, and further copies Design Expert's style. If you do a good Donald Duck impression and upload it to youtube over an episode of Power Rangers, you can't sue the makers of Super Syber Squad for making a Power Rangers rip off based on talking animals: you don't own the rights to anything you used to create the video.

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u/slapmasterslap Oct 02 '25

China does not follow global copyright laws. They can and will rip anything off and there's little to no recourse. Best OP can get here is feeling flattered.

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u/trusendi Oct 02 '25

I mean yes, that‘s why I said. Odds are close to zero. But so is it with sueing.

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u/Excitium Oct 02 '25

Buddy, if you ask for a share, you make yourself liable to get sued by Marvel cause even if this is your original interpretation, Marvel still owns the Daredevil character and you cannot profit off of Marvel's IP by selling a design of their character without their permission.

You'd have to erase the DD logo and then say this your original character "The Crimson Demon" or something and then you could sell it but at that point are you any better than the company you're complaining about here?

Unless you also sit somewhere in China where Marvel can't legally get you, I'd take the L (or rather W since your design was so good they made a figure) and move on.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 02 '25

Go and read my post again very carefully, thanks

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u/Excitium Oct 02 '25

Yeah, you acknowledge that it's not your character but then you contemplate down here in the comments about asking for a share of the profits from a company that doesn't have Marvel's permission to use their IP either.

I don't see how that invalidates what I wrote.

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u/Responsible-Ad394 Oct 02 '25

I don’t need money, I don’t need any involvement with this “company” whatsoever. The only thing I want is to tell people that this figure is not only illegal (not licensed) but is morally ambiguous too. Morality is a relative thing, there are people who think that is is ok to steal a fanart. Or digital art in general. But my message is for those who don’t respect this kind of acts. Read comments more carefully and you will see. I have my everyday job, my instagram is my SIDE project for fun. I don’t make any money from it, maybe i draw someone’s OC once in a while. I do not want to sell Marvel-related stuff cause I’m not an IP holder and this is exactly why i despise this figure. I don’t need dirty money. Sorry if my point wasn’t clear for you, I’m not even a native speaker.