Trump has raised millions with his mug shot. Legal experts say it could be a big mistake

politics @lemmy.world – 214 points – 11 months ago

Why Trump could be making a big mistake by fundraising off his mug shot

Guy A Rub, a copyright law professor at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, says that the former president could face legal consequences for using the mug shot without the express authorisation from authorities to do so.

“The copyright in the shot obviously does not belong to Trump. Generally, copyright belongs to whoever took the picture of its organisation. In this case, it is probably the sheriff’s office or the state,” Mr Rub told The Independent.

Federal law does not allow the federal government to own a copyright for booking photos, effectively leaving them to the public domain. But that is not necessarily the case at the state and local level, where using such images can be subject to fair use limitations.

“If the Sheriff’s office (or the state) wants to enforce the copyright in the image, it can probably do it,” Mr Rub added. “Copyright infringement can entail various sanctions, including the profits that the infringer, meaning the Trump campaign, gained as a result of the infringement.”

I hate these kinds of pointless clickbait articles. No, Trump isn't going to be arrested for reposting a picture of his own mugshot. They won't try to enforce such a law against a former president. Even if they did, it's already been shared and reproduced so many times that there's virtually no point in pursuing some copyright claim. All of this is moot anyway, because I can't imagine Fulton County actually gives a shit.

It's not about reposting the picture online, it's about the shirts and other merch he's selling for a direct profit.

Yeah, but nobody is about to sue him for that.

I dunno. I never thought we'd ever see him actually charged for anything, yet somehow we made it this far.

A copyright suit would just be a cherry on top.

Beat me to it

1 more...

Feels like mugshots should be public domain. Not necessarily freely-shared, but definitely shouldn't be available for anyone to claim copyright over. That or the government retains copyright with a strict prohibition on using any mugshots for commercial purposes.

It would feel really weird if a state government started selling Tshirts with people's mugshots on them.

It would incentivize law enforcement to arrest famous people if anything.

That is the best argument for the government copyrighting mugshots

"Big gubmint tryna steal mah mug!"

Guy A Rub?

It's even better without the middle initial. Guy Rub can solve all your problems.

That guy definitely lost the name lottery

At least he’s not Guy I Rub?

It should count as proceeds from illegal activity, assuming a conviction.

Imagine a world where he gets away with insurection but goes to jail for a DCMA violation...

Interesting and fair take.

If the buffoon is convicted for his crimes, profiting off his mug shot would then be profiting off his crimes.

Same reason a convict in prison isn't allowed to profit from a book they write relating to the crime.

That profit should be claimed back by the state. With triple damages if the law allows.

If my name were "Guy A Rub", I would spend my 18th birthday first slapping my parents for giving me such a stupid name and then heading to the courthouse to have it immediately changed to almost anything else.

Seriously. Guy A Rub? Sounds like a name given to a joke character in a badly written SNL skit.