Taking photo with a Action Figure and posting it online

[truckmount]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA

1. Lets say we take a picture of an action figure (Spiderman for an example) acting out in a certain way (yes good)

2. Post the photo online

3. We get paid from affiliate links to where they can purchase the action figures.

But how the photo is taken its really unique, has thousands of likes on IG really popular and also perhaps getting paid from google ads on the website.

Is something like this legal? We are not selling items direct but all in all the pictures we take (may) be really popular and the way we make profits is from other venues that involves around the photo we taken of the action figure.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA

1. Lets say we take a picture of an action figure (Spiderman for an example) acting out in a certain way (yes good)

2. Post the photo online

3. We get paid from affiliate links to where they can purchase the action figures.

But how the photo is taken its really unique, has thousands of likes on IG really popular and also perhaps getting paid from google ads on the website.

Is something like this legal? We are not selling items direct but all in all the pictures we take (may) be really popular and the way we make profits is from other venues that involves around the photo we taken of the action figure.

1. What do you mean by "acting out in a certain way?"

2. If you take a photo, you own the copyright in the photo. How your photo is USED when published, however, is what can create legal issues.

3. You appear to be capitalizing on the popularity of Spiderman and profiting off of Marvel's copyright and trademark rights.

It appears that you are at risk of attracting the attention of Marvel's legal team - and this is not a good thing.

Following is a WIPO link to a 2012 article on "Marvel's Superhero Licensing." There have been one or two additional lawsuits over Spiderman since this article was published.

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2012/03/article_0005.html

 

[truckmount]

forgot to also mention that article you linked does not work

 

[truckmount]

1. Spiderman acting out in a way like hanging from a ceiling swinging
2. We would tell people you can purchase this action figure at amazon.com (with our affiliate link)
3. We do not SELL photos, we only post them on Instagram and facebook.

 

[quincy]

1. Spiderman acting out in a way like hanging from a ceiling swinging
2. We would tell people you can purchase this action figure at amazon.com (with our affiliate link)
3. We do not SELL photos, we only post them on Instagram and facebook.

It still appears that you are profiting off of the rights-protected Spiderman and, therefore, infringing on these rights. This can create legal problems for you.

Whether Marvel will take exception to your use of the figure in your photos and in advertising other sites is a question mark. I imagine Marvel will notice and not like your uses of their action figure.

Sorry about the link. It is now fixed.

 

[truckmount]

What if we put inside our post let's say "Spider-Man is copyright (or trademark) of Disney.com and we have no affiliation with them and so on? Basically put a disclaimer on there and provide them their credit of the character and toys? Put this in every Instagram post we put up. Would this help us out and allow us to take photos of toys and post them online just to provide links where they can buy them from EVEN if it's from their main website? And not just Disney but many other maybe like anime characters.

 

[Silverplum]

What if we put inside our post let's say "Spider-Man is copyright (or trademark) of Disney.com and we have no affiliation with them and so on? Basically put a disclaimer on there and provide them their credit of the character and toys? Put this in every Instagram post we put up. Would this help us out and allow us to take photos of toys and post them online just to provide links where they can buy them from EVEN if it's from their main website? And not just Disney but many other maybe like anime characters.

What if you read and followed the advice and legal info given to you by Quincy?

 

[quincy]

What if we put inside our post let's say "Spider-Man is copyright (or trademark) of Disney.com and we have no affiliation with them and so on? Basically put a disclaimer on there and provide them their credit of the character and toys? Put this in every Instagram post we put up. Would this help us out and allow us to take photos of toys and post them online just to provide links where they can buy them from EVEN if it's from their main website? And not just Disney but many other maybe like anime characters.

Disclaimers have worked in the past to mitigate (lessen) damages awarded a rights-holder in an infringement lawsuit, but disclaimers do not prevent a rights-holder from suing in the first place. And, essentially, a disclaimer of the sort you envision acknowledges the fact that you know of the rights held by Marvel and have decided to use the rights-protected material without permission anyway.

The holder of a trademark and/or a copyright has the right to control how their mark and/or their material is used by others. While it has been found by courts in some cases to be a fair use of copyrighted material or a trademark to use them as a tool in selling property legally acquired and owned by an individual (under a doctrine called the first sale doctrine), you infringe on copyrights and trademarks by reproducing or creating derivatives of copyrighted works (e.g., photos of action figures "acting out in certain ways"), or when you confuse consumers as to the origin of products or services or you profit from the marketing of products or services that are protected under trademark law when you are not a licensed retailer of the merchandise.

In other words, you can take a photo of an action figure you legally own and you can advertise the sale of this action figure by using the photo and the trademark to identify and describe what is being sold (e.g., This Spiderman action figure by Marvel is for sale for $X).

Your proposed use of the action figure photo goes beyond this, however, and into the "Marvel might sue" territory. This is not territory you want to explore without guidance from an IP attorney in your area.

Here (once again from WIPO) is a link to "Taking or Using Photographs of Copyright Material, Trademarks and People," an article by Lien Verbauwhede, that you might find helpful: http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/sme/en/documents/pdf/ip_photography.pdf

 

[Silverplum]

This thread shows again that we (and by "we" I mean Quincy) are better than "Down The Street."

 

[Just Blue]

This thread shows again that we (and by "we" I mean Quincy) are better than "Down The Street."

Quincy is awesome.

 

[quincy]

I took a look at truckmount's other thread. It can probably be said with some certainty that I used more words than anyone on the other forum.

I agree that we (and by "we" I mean all of us) are better than "Down the Street."




(thanks for the nice words, by the way - now I need to talk to my kids and wife so they can work to deflate my ego, as they are wont to do )