iPhone App: Using Celebrity Pictures

[rlfunique]

Hello,

I am new to these forums, after reading a few posts here it seems like this is a really good community and there are a lot of really knowledgeable people here.

I am thinking about making a very simple iPhone app. All it would do is cycle through pictures of your favourite celebrities.

My question is whether or not it is legal to take these pictures from the internet. I imagine it definitely would be illegal if I charged money for the app, but I am curious if it would still be illegal if the app was free, and I just had a small advertisement.

I am from Canada, and the server hosting the pictures would also be located in Canada (although, this wouldn't have to be the case). The celebrities would be from the USA.

Thanks in advance!

 

[justalayman]

My question is whether or not it is legal to take these pictures from the internet.

did you originally put them on the internet? Simply put; no, you cannot steal others property.

I imagine it definitely would be illegal if I charged money for the app, but I am curious if it would still be illegal if the app was free, and I just had a small advertisement.

charging for it does not change anything other than it would make the copyright infringement even more egregious.

 

[Zigner]

Hello,

I am new to these forums, after reading a few posts here it seems like this is a really good community and there are a lot of really knowledgeable people here.

I am thinking about making a very simple iPhone app. All it would do is cycle through pictures of your favourite celebrities.

My question is whether or not it is legal to take these pictures from the internet. I imagine it definitely would be illegal if I charged money for the app, but I am curious if it would still be illegal if the app was free, and I just had a small advertisement.

I am from Canada, and the server hosting the pictures would also be located in Canada (although, this wouldn't have to be the case). The celebrities would be from the USA.

Thanks in advance!

While this forum is for US law only, the answer is the same. No, it is not legal to steal the work of others...

 

[rlfunique]

Thank you both for your fast replies.

That's what I thought the answer would be.

Time to think of another idea

Again, very impressive community you have here. Kudos.

 

[FlyingRon]

In addition to the copyright issues involved in stealing the work of the photographer who took them, celebrities have right to their own fame. Even if YOU took the pictures, you are likely to run into issues.

 

[FlyingRon]

Not all the pictures are copyrighted equates to you're only "stealing some of the time." While downloading may be authorized, implicitly or explicitly, using other people's images as you propose is INFRINGING ( there, do you like that word better than stealing?)

Then you have a second issue. Separate from copyright, is the right to fame. Now fame is a two way street. If you were writing an a news story about a famous person, lets say you were writing about this weekends playoff games, and you wanted to stick a picture of RG3 in there as part of it (provided you had the copyrights), then that is what famous people have to put up with. However, putting out an app full of pictures of football players (sort of electronic trading cards) or using RG3's picture on a bottle of salad dressing, infringes on the right for him to capitalize on his own fame. While the NFL (or MLB) is just an example here, I guarantee you that you will get jumped on nine-ways-to-sunday by these folks. This sort of likeness selling is assigned to the players unions for their source of funding.