Before going into the rest, I just wanted to say first off I love the shirt. It is very artistically done and quite cute. I must say I've always been a fan of your shirts Fablefire.
I know I'm going to get flack for this post but I figure since I'm actually a law student and am interested in Intellectual property I'd post what I know since there seems to be a little debate as to whether this is infringement. So is there copyright infringement? Short answer: murky. Could go either way. Depends on what exactly is copyrighted. (probably just the game name, likenesses of the characters, and the triforce, but I don't really know)
Long answer: here is why...
Armour v. Knowles, 512 F.3d 147, 152 (5th Cir. 2007) states that:
to prove copyright infringement, a plaintiff must establish (1) ownership of a valid copyright; (2) factual copying; and (3) substantial similarity.
(note to people who don't know, 5th circuit includes Texas among other states)
Other cases have said that the part that has been copied needs to be a portion of the copyrighted material that is protected under the copyright. Each individual item here would not be protected under the copyright, that is clear. But all together? I don't know, kind of a toss up. They paint a picture with a meaning behind them. The key is whether all together the items are protected under the copyright and if so, are the two things "substantially similar."
In general courts have defined substantial similarity by whether an ordinary observer would determine that the copyright has been infringed (without being told they are looking for infringement).
I'm not going to play myself off as an expert, I'm just a law student still. However, I'm really good at research and know a bit more about the law than most. So, in my un-experted opinion this shirt probably does not infringe because I doubt the items would be considered protected under the copyright. However, I believe the issue could be raised. But like I said, I can only look up in general what the law is, I don't know how the courts would decide this case if it came up, it is kind of a murky subject. I think the mario shirt that was submitted is a much more likely candidate than this.
