[cc-community] [Clipart] In the interim...

[Greg Bulmash]

I managed the photo collection for the Internet Movie Database for 
years.  Editorial use (i.e. using the photo in connection with an 
article about the celebrity) is protected by the First Amendment.  You 
can even use an amazingly unflattering photo and you're covered.

The right of publicity issue comes up if you use the image in a way that 
implies a connection between the celebrity and a product or service, 
particularly an endorsement of that product or service.  In that case, 
you're using their image commercially, not editorially, and for 
commercial use, you have to get their permission.

That's why I asked if it's okay to submit the drawings.  If someone used 
them for commercial purposes, then they could get sued.  The copyright 
and public domain issues wouldn't be involved.  It would be the 
celebrity's right of publicity as Elizabeth notes.

It's that potential confusion that gave me pause about submitting them. 
  OCL probably has disclaimers in the terms of use that would indemnify 
OCL from any liability, but it still wouldn't be good to see a user get 
sued over an image they got from OCL.

I'll still upload the images of Lenin and Che, as they're not going to 
be issues (and you've already got a Lenin).  It's the living celebs I'm 
concerned about.

- Greg


Elizabeth Stark wrote:
> There could be some right of publicity issues in the US, although
> those vary by state...
> 
> WP may provide some insights: 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights
> 
> On 5/8/07, Jon Phillips <jon at rejon.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, 2007-05-08 at 13:12 -0700, Greg Bulmash wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > Longtime listener, first time caller.
>> >
>> > Is it okay to submit caricatures of living people?
>> >
>> > As an experiment, I had some artists draw some caricatures:
>> >    Paris Hilton
>> >    Rachel Ray
>> >    Lenin
>> >    Che
>> >    Whoopi Goldberg
>> >    George Clooney
>> >
>> > Decided not to use them commercially and since they were works for 
>> hire,
>> > I own the copyright.  I was going to dedicate them to the public domain
>> > and upload them to OCL (about 10 in all) when I found it offline.
>>
>> That is a good question. I'm cc'ing the cc-community list on this too
>> see thoughts. If you are interested, please hop over to that list.
>>
>> cc-community people, this fellow is asking if it is ok to contribute
>> characters of famous people to the public domain. Any good sources for
>> this?
>>
>> > So I might as well use this pause to ask if it's cool to upload them.
>> >
>> > - Greg
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > clipart at lists.freedesktop.org
>> > http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart
>> -- 
>> Jon Phillips
>>
>> San Francisco, CA
>> USA PH 510.499.0894
>> jon at rejon.org
>> http://www.rejon.org
>>
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>>
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>