The Trump campaign may have violated United State copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the former president’s mugshot, legal experts have warned.

  • merridew@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Federal government works generally aren’t domestically copyrightable. They are considered to be in the public domain within the USA.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_the_federal_government_of_the_United_States

    ETA: I will add that that USA has some of the best protections for Fair Use. But Fair Use definitely doesn’t extend to selling it at that scale.

    These are the tests for Fair Use:

    • the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; [very commercial]
    • the nature of the copyrighted work; [photographic, publicly available]
    • the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and [100% of it]
    • the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. [Effectively eliminated the value to the copyright holder]