Ah, in that case it could be seen as for financial profit, so fair use probably isn’t on the table anymore… and I suppose it’s possible, if whoever copyrighted it is in the same business, that you might step on some toes. I expect you’d still most likely get a cease and desist letter first before they actually started filing lawsuits, though… no point in spending the money on lawsuits if you’re just going to stop as soon as you’re asked, unless they can prove they’ve suffered serious financial damage from your use of the altered image.
Since you don’t know who has the copyright and can’t ask them for licensing, and there’s been a decent effort to contact whoever it is, morally I’d say you’re ok. Legally, it might be a slight gamble but it’s probably not that serious a risk. After all, federally speaking, you’re breaking about a dozen laws just by having something to fill the packs with… just no particular risk involved, they’re looking for major operations distributing finished product if they’re after anyone involved in cannabis. Most of the budget’s already going towards opioids, especially fentanyl.
We’re talking about the US (or possibly Canadian?) legal system. It’s based on buying your way out of crimes in the first place. This is 3 months later, of course, so it’s probably not relevant to @Greyfox - who appears to be suspended anyway, hmm - but if someone did find him using their image and sued him for it, they would be stuck hiring lawyers themselves with no expectation of financial gain other than the financial damage they could convince a judge they had suffered. That’s why businesses send a cease & desist order first; to keep it cheap, if they can. Unless there’s a million dollar payday, they’re not going to spend even 5 figures on a lawyer to sue somebody who might not have any money to comply with a judgment anyway. I’m not saying anyone would be nice about it, just pragmatic.
It’s a mute point bud. The background was open source but the characters were not. I tracked the artist of the caricatures who did not have a way to track the one who commissioned it. Ended up a dead end even though I had emails with the artist. In the end the pics were not used to avoid any issues. Started looking at open source stuff to replace the fox and skunk but than OleReynard was gone from here.
I’m sad to see olereynard is no longer around , I have some mazar from the real seed company he passed on to me many moons ago. They just popped up out of the soil in less then 72 hours with a 100% germination and I thought he would be happy to hear that.
This is 3 months later, of course, so it’s probably not relevant to 
