"Make no mistake... This is one of THE iconic photos of our time "
Oh dear, seems that Team Trump may have breached copyright and might even have to forfeit the $7M merchandise cash.
"Can you legally use Trump’s mugshot on merchandise?
Betsy Rosenblatt, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, said there is copyright ownership of mugshots in most jurisdictions.
“You're prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorization,” Rosenblatt said. “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.”
So will the potentially thousands of people who are already using the mugshot to make a profit get in trouble?
Rosenblatt said in order to pursue a claim for copyright infringement, the owner of the copyright, who she said is likely the Fulton County Sheriff's Department, would have to be the one to sue.
“Whether the Fulton County Sheriff's Department would decide to enforce its copyright is entirely up to them,” Rosenblatt said. “But it's also reasonable to think that the Fulton County Sheriff's Office might think, you know, this is a public document, it belongs to the world in a way, [the] copyright belongs to us.”
