I’ve seen dozens of t-shirts for sale on CafePress with modified images of the presidential candidates. Is it ok to use their image and likenesses in this way? I always thought if you used someone’s face on a product you owe them some sort of royalty or you need to contract to use their likeness.
You can use images/art of US political figures for profit at Cafepress or in another venture without owing the political figure royalty. However, as far as photos go the person who took the photo has the rights/ownership of the given image. So you would need to take your own photo yourself or get permission from the person who took the image if you want to use it for commercial purposes. The only issue is that some people like Arnold Schwarzenegger who was an actor who became a politician. You can sell products with him now but if he leaves office they in theory you would need to stop selling these products. Also, when in doubt about any of these things you really should contact a trademark/copyright attorney just to be sure.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:39 am
You can use images/art of US political figures for profit at Cafepress or in another venture without owing the political figure royalty. However, as far as photos go the person who took the photo has the rights/ownership of the given image. So you would need to take your own photo yourself or get permission from the person who took the image if you want to use it for commercial purposes. The only issue is that some people like Arnold Schwarzenegger who was an actor who became a politician. You can sell products with him now but if he leaves office they in theory you would need to stop selling these products. Also, when in doubt about any of these things you really should contact a trademark/copyright attorney just to be sure.
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