Copyrights for photos and content used in Iphone Application

[jacksongan]

Hi all, i m in the process of writing a application for iphone, for those who own an iphone will know wat i m referring to. The application is actuali a travel guide to certain countries in the world.

My question is, can i take photos of all the tourist attractions (like buildings, monuments, stadium, zoo) and include the photos in my apps? The other issue is that, is it ok to include attractions like famous shopping mall (which, if i post the photos in my apps, will definitely show some photos of famous companies, ie. LV, Prada etc) and famous food.

I just wonder if i were to ask for permission for each owner, it will be impossible to create such application.

This application of mine will be sold via Apple Iphone App Store at a price to be determined when i finish write the program.

Kindly advise.

Thank you.

 

[quincy]

As a most general rule, photos you take yourself, of tourist attractions or of monuments and buildings, can be published and sold. Releases would not be necessary.

If a photo focuses on a specific trademark or on a copyrighted element of a building or attraction, or if the photo focuses on a specific individual, then you can run into problems. If a trademark or copyrighted element, or a person in a photo, is only incidental to the photo as a whole, there is less of a risk of infringement or of privacy/publicity rights issues.

For whether your specific photos could violate someone's trademark or copyright, or an individual's privacy/publicity rights, your best bet is to have an IP attorney review the photos you intend to use prior to use.