[Clipart] celebrity image

[John Olsen]

Indeed there are already plenty of pictures of famous and not famous people in the library. The main issue that comes up is using the image of the celebrity to imply support of something without their consent.  That includes making money off of their image.  And none of this has anything to do with the copyright status of the art, but about the personality. It would be just as big a violation if you just wrote the words " Sandra Bullock loves OCAL" on our front page as showing her picture and holding the OCAL logo.   

John Olsen
 
>
>So my opinion is to allow addition of celebrity images. If adding the 
>check box is a trouble then may be vectorizing & cliparting of 
>celebrity/people images should be outlined in the policy.
>
>Happy new year to all of you,
>Mohamed Ibrahim

>Greg Bulmash wrote:
>> Perhaps there needs to be a special warning on such pages, stating that 
>> while the image itself is public domain with respect to copyright, 
>> images of famous people carry other restrictions and you should consult 
>> an attorney before using it in commercial projects.

>>
>>   
>>> This is one of those fuzzy areas of the law still being sorted out.   
>>> In the US it is perfectly acceptable for an artist to create a  
>>> recognizable image of another person.  One court decision excerpt:  
>>> "The court held that Sections 50 and 51 had no application because an  
>>> "artist may make a work of art that includes a recognizable likeness  
>>> of a person without her or his written consent and sell at least a  
>>> limited number of copies thereof" without violating the statute. The  
>>> court also declared in dicta that works of art, including sculptures,  
>>> were deserving of First Amendment protection that superseded the right  
>>> of privacy."
>>>
>>> The only problem I see is in use by someone taking the image from  
>>> here.  If the image was used for publicity purposes or to make money  
>>> based on the fame of the person, then the user would be in violation.  
>>> It might be easy enough to solve this by renaming the file with a  
>>> vague name - "Hollywood actress" or just "Sandra".  Thoughts?
>>>     
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>>   
>