UNITY'S PROFILE

author=Red_Nova

author=Shinan

author=Irog

author=Avee
In fact, Game Freak are legally entitled to do so:
https://www.pokemon.com/us/legal/

These are rules written by big corporations to claim ownership of art they didn't make. Are these rules legal ?

Fan art in general is a breach of copyright but I guess the copyright holder can be gracious enough to allow people to make fan art as the pokemon company has done there. It's perfectly legal and easier than having to give specific permission to everyone who asks to make something derivative of the stuff you own.

It's true that, in strictly legal terms, using any IP that doesn't belong to you for any purpose is copyright infringement. It's also true that most companies have enough sense to know that going after harmless fan works is a bad idea on, like, every conceivable level.

That being said, I remember listening to a lawyer talk about copyright law a long time ago, and they said that while you can't claim ownership over someone else's IP, no else can claim ownership over the actual work you created. If you drew Pokemon fanart, for example, Nintendo or Game Freak can't come in and say that they own the art you made, only the IP. So, if I'm remembering correctly, I'm pretty sure claiming someone else's fanworks as their own is not the right of the corporations unless there is documented proof somewhere that the person who created the arrangement explicitly agreed to those terms.

Law is convoluted and hyperspecific and goes on a case by case basis, though, so don't bring my name up as evidence if anyone decides to sue Game Freak for copyright infringement XD I'm just not big on trusting corpos following the law just because they wrote a paragraph in a tab called Legal Information.