Sure they can sue. If someone sells you something stolen, illegal, or something that they didn't own the rights to sell, it's fradulent misrepresentation. Using photos taken by someone else without their permission is "stealing". If someone who buys a site is sued, the first thing they are going to do is point the finger at whomever sold them the site. The copyright holder is then also going to go after the person/persons responsible for creating the copyright infringement in the first place.
So if someone is using my name as a domain can I sue them? Who decides how much of a celebrity another individual is? and BTW..my name is being used as a domain but I'm not crying about it.
Lol iv talked to legal council before on this one guys... once you sell a site to someone EVEN if it is using copyrighted material it is THE BUYERS responsibility to look into it as they are the site owners. Just because you created a design and sold it to them... doesn't mean you are liable against anything but using a image and selling it. Sure the photographer might be able to come after you, but since you do not own the image anymore, it's really not up to the creator but the new site owner.
It's the usage that is going to determine infringement. Is someone using your name to profit off of you, or something you did? If your name is "Donald Trump" there is nothing that would prevent you from using the domain - HOWEVER, if you put content on the site about the famous "Donald Trump" then you are attempting to profit off of someone else. You do NOT have automatic rights to use your own name if it infringes upon an existing trademark - i.e. if your real name is "Donald Trump" you can't open up your own "Trump Casinos."
You received very bad legal advice. You never owned the image to begin with. You sold something "stolen" - and you can never pass off a criminal charge to the buyer.
Yes, but it all comes back to the fact that - indeed the said person used copyrighted photo's - okay... but ONCE it is sold, it is no longer that persons "posession" they cannot be held responsible for it. Where did you get your legal advice from to know so well? I would laugh at any of the people that bought designs off of me if they came and tried to sue me. That would just be straight pathetic of them.
lol, you believe what you want. If you think you can steal a photo and resell it with no legal or criminal liability becaue "you sold it", then don't worry about it.
Oh.. doesn't the person/company have to contact you asking for you to remove the copyrighted images before they can proceed with legal actions?
Absolutely not. All photos have an automatic copyright. The minute the picture is used without permission, you are liable for usage fees. Think of it another way, can I steal copies of any of the original sites/work you have created, resell them, and only stop if you happen to ask? If that was the case, no one would have to buy anything you put up for sale - they could simply make a free copy and figure you would never find out.
Not that it ist he case here, but sometimes the recipient either doesn't fully appreciate what is said or filters out what they want to hear. Other times the person doing the explaining doesn't do so adequately. Doesn't matter - in this case the law is pretty clear. My test is that if you feel that it really could be wrongful conduct, chances are pretty good that it is.
I have a question. What about if you make a fansite about things that you have of that celeb or movie. If you have photos or other merchandise. You dont own the rights to the photo, but you do own the photo. So what are the rules about that??
If you don't have rights to publish the photo, it's copyright infringement. Buying a glossy of a celebrity does not give you rights to make/use a digital image of the photo or make reprints. If you were genuinely selling a legal copy of the photo, you could take a picture of the photo (much like a listing for ebay) but you couldn't incorporate the celebrity image into your websites design.
Sorry to reopen this thread, but I found it quite interesting. I was wondering what folks thoughts are for photos that are issued in a press kit. These photos are provided for the sole purpose of distribution, so using "press kit" photos should be legal, no? (At least in the US?) Morty
You would need to check with whomever issued the press kit - which would need to have originally been sent to the end user. There is not an automatic right to all types of usage just because the photo was in a press kit. Generally, they are issued to news agencies or sites running news stories and have specific usage rights - and that usage is usually not for regular commercial site - like a fan site running adsense, celebrity wallpapers, etc.
Would you like me to post a letter I received from the attorneys at CBS when one of the contestants from Survivor wanted to sue me for using her name in a domain name for my own personal gain? Using someone's name for fun, and if you aren't generating revenue is usually looked over. It's when people try to exploit the name or brand to make money that usually results in action. Either way it's illegal, but proffiting from someone else's fame is what drives people mad.
Until relevant laws say otherwise, personal names aren't automatically given trademark rights. You either register a trademark for your name or somehow demonstrate you have established trademark rights via "secondary meaning": http://www.marklaw.com/trademark-glossary/R-S.htm Sports and entertainment celebrities, for example, have more chances of being able to show secondary usage than me or you. Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Morgan Freeman are 3 examples of those who were able to demonstrate such in order to wrest control of their respective domain name-sakes. So if you're an ordinary mortal like me, you have no registered trademark for your namesake, and you can't demonstrate secondary meaning, you have no legal rights to your domain name-sake held by someone else.