Legal experts have cautioned that Donald Trump’s campaign perhaps breached United States copyright law by engaging in the sale of goods that prominently displayed the mugshot of the previous president.
The presidential candidate from the Republican party promptly seized the opportunity to use the photograph taken of him at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, which prominently displayed the ex-president wearing a displeased expression while facing the camera.
Merchandise adorned with the iconic photograph and the rallying cry “Never surrender” was promptly marketed at prices ranging from $12 to $34.
In a span of merely three days, the Trump campaign generated a substantial revenue of $7.1 million from the sale of various merchandise items, such as T-shirts, mugs, koozies, and bumper stickers.
According to legal experts, it is argued that the funds in question may legitimately pertain to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, the entity responsible for capturing the photograph. This assertion is based on the provisions of US copyright law, which establish that the law enforcement agency responsible for capturing a picture holds legal ownership over it.
“In the context of photographs taken by law enforcement during the booking process, the author of the mugshot photograph is the law enforcement agency,” the 2022 University of Georgia School of Law’s Journal of Intellectual Property Law states.
According to Betsy Rosenblatt, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, there exist certain restrictions on individuals’ actions with images of this nature.
“You’re prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorization,” she told Spectrum News 1 Ohio.
“You’re prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorization, or that is to say distributing anything that isn’t the one copy you already lawfully have, and various other things. Making a public display of it, making a public performance of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here.”
According to Dean Obeidallah of MSNBC, the mugshot used by the Trump campaign was not modified in any manner, so preventing any claim of major alteration resulting in the creation of something new.
According to Obeidallah, the campaign’s inability to claim fair use is due to its exploitation of the picture for financial gain.
One of Trump’s key advisors, Chris LaCivita, tweeted on August 24: “If you are a campaign, PAC, scammer and you [are] try raising money off the mugshot of @realDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission …WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU you will NOT SCAM DONORS.”
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office would eventually have the final say over whether to file a lawsuit against the Trump campaign and any other parties that have profited financially from the mugshot.
It’s possible that the department will determine that it “won’t undertake the expense and trouble of hiring copyright counsel and delivering takedowns and cease-and-desist letters, or in lawsuits,” according to Rosenblatt.
However, according to MSNBC, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office may determine that the millions of dollars generated by the image legitimately belong to it, especially because it is currently in dire need of money to improve the appalling conditions at the Fulton County Jail.
Patrick Labat, the sheriff of Fulton County, recently begged commissioners for money, claiming that he is in dire need for the prison and that “hundreds of toilets and sinks” are broken.
“It’s a human crisis, and I have been begging for the resources for 887 days,” he told the commission, according to 11 Alive.
“I’m really, really tired of begging for money to do my job.”
The post Dems Want To Charge Trump For What He Did After GA Mugshot appeared first on The Republic Brief.
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