• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

profit of images of elected officals and media

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

viewpoint

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

My question is: Can I use elected officals and media (such as TV anchors) images from the internet or hire someone to draw a cartoon image of these elected officals and then sell them to to make a profit without the consent of the person, legally?

If not, if I were a non-profit company could I use these images on (t-shirts lets say) where the proceeds will be distirbuted to go to charities. Could I do this legally?
 


swalsh411

Senior Member
These "images from the internet" are almost certainly copyrighted if they are of media professionals. So you cannot just make a bunch of copies of that picture and sell it for a profit unless you're prepared to be sued. Just because you can find it using google images doesn't mean you can do anything you want with it.

As far as public elected officials go, I would answer a qualified yes so long as the source image is not copyrighted. For example, when Arnold became governor of CA he lost certain rights to his own image that he had when he was just a movie star. It would be perfectly legal to take a public source picture of George Bush, put it on a monkey, and sell that t-shirt for a profit. Many images on wikipedia could be used for this purpose as well, but you would need to see the image details to see what is permitted.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top