The Trump campaign may have violated United State copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the former president’s mugshot, legal experts have warned.

The Trump campaign may have violated United State copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the former president’s mugshot, legal experts have warned.

  • merridew@feddit.ukEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    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]
      • merridew@feddit.ukEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Yes exactly. It isn’t in the public domain, and so is still protected by copyright, and arguably fails the test for Fair Use. But OP’s earlier comment suggested they were not aware that federal works sit in the public domain.

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          It is a federal law that only applies to federal works. This is a state case with a state mugshot that is a state work.

          • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
            21·
            1 year ago

            This isn’t accurate as there is no such thing as a federal work or state work nor is there any actual court case. The law covers the whole country and it’s explained in the first sentence of the article:

            Donald Trump’s campaign may have violated United States copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the former president’s mugshot, legal experts have warned.