Making t-shirts with a picture of me

[Subra]

Hi,

I have a picture of me as a Thai prince, which I made into a printed t-shirt and people love it. I plan to use teespring and sell said picture and see if I can make some money (just white t-shirt picture). The one problem is I really cannot get the copyright on the picture. It was taken by a small studio In a city called Chang Mai in Thailand by a studio that specialized in such pictures. They had the setting and all he costumes and I posed. So, I hired them to take a set of pictures of me. If I make money from this, I doubt they would ever know and they don't even speak much English. So, could I possibly get in trouble, since as I understand I don't have the copyright but honestly no else can claim the copyright either, if this t-shirt does become popular?

Thanks,
Subra

 

[Subra]

And I am a US green card holder with a Malaysian passport and I live in Massachusetts.

 

[justalayman]

I would suggest you obtain a license to use the image or forego the project. It appears there is an automatic copyright that attaches similar to US law.

should you fail to do so, it is at your own risk

 

[quincy]

Hi,

I have a picture of me as a Thai prince, which I made into a printed t-shirt and people love it. I plan to use teespring and sell said picture and see if I can make some money (just white t-shirt picture). The one problem is I really cannot get the copyright on the picture. It was taken by a small studio In a city called Chang Mai in Thailand by a studio that specialized in such pictures. They had the setting and all he costumes and I posed. So, I hired them to take a set of pictures of me. If I make money from this, I doubt they would ever know and they don't even speak much English. So, could I possibly get in trouble, since as I understand I don't have the copyright but honestly no else can claim the copyright either, if this t-shirt does become popular?

Thanks,
Subra

If you signed a contract with the small studio in Chang Mai, you can review it to determine if you purchased the copyrights in the photos along with the photos. Unless this studio transferred all copyrights in the photos to you in writing, however, you own only the actual prints you purchased but you have no rights to reproduce the images. These rights remain with the photographer.

It could be possible for you to have the rights transferred to you by contacting the studio now, though. You could a request the transfer of copyrights in exchange for X amount of money.

The fact that a copyright holder lives in a different country and does not understand English is not a good reason to infringe on their copyrights. You open yourself up to DMCA takedowns of your online sales, and you open yourself up to a lawsuit if you go ahead with the sale of your tee-shirts using someone else's copyrighted photos.

Good luck.