this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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The Trump campaign may have violated United State copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the former president’s mugshot, legal experts have warned.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Never surrender"

Isn't that exactly what he did in order for that photo to be taken? 🤔

[–] cedarmesa 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He could lamp a nun in the clunge and his people would cheer. The flies have picked a shit; now they like what he does because it's him rather than liking him because of what he does.

It's what you get for turning elections into sports matches.

[–] cedarmesa 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I wonder if the writers for Galaxy Quest could sue him too! 😀

[–] Sweetpeaches69 82 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mugshot merchandise being sold by him is insane. I hate this timeline.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The former president of America is selling merch of his own mugshot for a RICO felony racketeering charge, for stuff he allegedly did while he was the sitting president. That is a thing that is actually happening right now.

By the time this is all resolved, we might even have and answer to the question: can a president lose an election, organize a coup to overturn that election, get legitimately re-elected in the next election, then pardon himself for sedition for the election he tried to overturn?

Like it's a long shot, but the fact that it's even remotely possible to watch that play out for real is fucking wild.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Like it's a long shot

Is it though? I thought him winning in 2016 was impossible. I’m not sure of anything anymore.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

People buying it is even weirder

[–] kvasir476 57 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You hate to defend Trump, but that's absolutely fucked. As far as I know you can't refuse a mugshot, so you're essentially compelled to release the rights to your likeness if you're charged with a crime. I could see the logic if you're convicted (under the 13th, which is still fucked), but that's crazy before a trial/guilty verdict.


Anyway, just a layman's take. Would love to hear what an actual lawyer has to say.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (3 children)

People generally don't have rights to photos of them regardless of whether they consented to having them taken. That's, like, the whole thing with paparazzi.

US copyright law is unsalvageably fucked

[–] kvasir476 14 points 1 year ago

IMO the difference between this and paparazzi is that you aren't legally compelled to allow the paparazzi to take photos of you. If paparazzi gets the photos then they're theirs, but you can at least try to prevent them from taking them.


US copyright law is unsalvageably fucked

Yes

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

“You’re prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorization, or that is to say distributing anything that isn’t the one copy you already lawfully have, and various other things. Making a public display of it, making a public performance of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here.”

Am I crazy or does this mean every single newspaper that has reproduced the photo (i.e. probably the majority of political newspapers in the entire world) should have asked Fulton county Sheriff's Office for permission to do it?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

'Fair use' is a thing. It varies by country, and I'm not certain on where the US falls.

Selling copies on merchandise would definitely not be fair use.

Using it in news articles may be fair use under some circumstances, but probably only if you were commenting specifically on the mugshot.

[–] PotjiePig 11 points 1 year ago

News articles can use media for 'editorial' purposes which has a slightly different usage rights subset to 'commercial' purposes which tend to be much more tied down. Having said that, I would have thought that seeing it's his own mugshot and that it wasn't taken by professional creative photographer and that it was forced upon him and released to the public domain, that he would be entitled to use it as he sees fit. It's a picture of himself after all.

This almost feels like he's being picked on because he's so widely hated and that many people want to see him burn.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

First of all, there is the fair use thing, and second, they probably have, and most likely there is even a clause in the Sheriff's Office' standard disclaimer that press use is OK.

[–] rez_doggie 5 points 1 year ago

mugshots. com needs to be sued out of existance.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The copyright is not with the person on the photo, it is with the photographer. Which in this case is the police department.

The only rights that Trump had were the rights on his own picture. Which is hard to control as a celebrity (public interest and such), and which he basically waived as he had those merch sold himself.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

I understand what you're saying, and normally I would agree with you.

However, when Trump was mad at Twitter, he pushed hard to revoke Section 230, which protects social media platforms from the content their users post.

Interestingly, he stopped caring about this as soon as he started his own social media platform, which he tried his best to steal without attribution from Mastodon.

Now he is selling an image he does not own the copyright on. He can get fucked.

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[–] TenderfootGungi 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Whomever takes a picture owns the copyright. If you hand your camera to a stranger to take a family photo, legally that stranger owns the copyright on your family photo. In this case the county or county employee owns the copyright. And they should be suing anyone profiting from its use.

Edit: consent is irrelevant. That is a totally separate privacy issue.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anything the government produces should be in the public domain.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought that was the case

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[–] Iamdanno 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trumps attorney: "Try not to break any laws on the way to the parking lot."

[–] brimnac 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

His lawyer wasn’t even supposed to be there, that day.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I hate that a shitty picture taken as part of legal proceedings is copyrightable. Just like research paid for by the government should be free and unencumbered, so should things produced by the government itself.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I think the reason for this copyright is so nobody can massively shame the convinced. But nobody thought anyone would be proud about it so much to share it themselves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The reason for the copyright is that you automatically get a copyright on any photograph. It seems unlikely the sheriff's office would want to enforce it. This is all wishful thinking.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Federal government works generally aren't domestically copyrightable. They are considered to be in the public domain within the USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_the_federal_government_of_the_United_States

ETA: I will add that that USA has some of the best protections for Fair Use. But Fair Use definitely doesn't extend to selling it at that scale.

These are the tests for Fair Use:

  • the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; [very commercial]
  • the nature of the copyrighted work; [photographic, publicly available]
  • the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and [100% of it]
  • the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. [Effectively eliminated the value to the copyright holder]
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (9 children)

This isn’t federal, though. This is state.

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[–] crystalmerchant 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

like he gives a flying fuck

[–] random_character_a 4 points 1 year ago

I heard he gives a 1 up mushroom. Not a flying one.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good. Copyright violations for commercial gain are one of the most mindlessly over-penalized issue in the books. This time, it could actually used for good. Making millions out of copyright violations in the US is probably next to gang rape and mass murder.

[–] Grimy 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Copyright laws are usually just abused by corporations to endlessly milk profit and hinder small time artists and creators. I don't think it's comparable to gang rape.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I almost want Trump to bite it just so I don't have to see any more of these headlines made by people salivating over an imprisonment that's just never going to happen.

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[–] fox2263 14 points 1 year ago

Has anyone else ever, in history, released a merchandising line 5 secs after their mugshot process thing?

[–] DigitalFrank 11 points 1 year ago

So throw a civil suit at him. I'm sure the taxpayers of Fulton County won't mind paying for a 10-year court case and appeals.

[–] Jackolantern 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really can’t believe that he was a former president and “leader” of the most powerful military that ever existed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is insane how one clown could cause so much havoc, not even a bright one at that

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think the problem is, that the system was set up on the assumption that you'd have to be a semi-reasonable person to end up as president. Like there are checks an balances set up to reign in your dictators and evil genius types, but they didn't really account for a complete moron getting in there and just running hog wild.

It's a bit like setting up a really elaborate security system to catch any kind of sneaky burglar, and then someone just flattens your house with a tank for no reason.

[–] Delusional 6 points 1 year ago

Wow they found enough idiots to buy that dumb shit to make $7 million?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At this point, I'd be more shocked if some dumbass thing he does isn't breaking a law.

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