I thought candidates for office, who accept funding, can't claim copyright on images, so how does Obama?
Please don't answer if you have never opened a copyright law book or have DIRECT knowledge of this question.
Can someone explain how someone running for public office can lay claim to the campaign logo, especially when they accept public donations & gov't money to run office? How does Obama have the grounds to force that? The easy answer for people that don't know rights (like me) is that "well, it's his image isn't it?!" I thought that like gov't images, like the shuttle for example, we had fair usage rights for anything involving politics? He IS a Senator, so he's in gov't, I could see if he didn't hold an office YET, and someone said he's not in gov't yet. I had made a design for him, and used his O image (the red white & blue image) but the website was ordered to take it down by his campaign - obviously, that turned me off a bit about him. I've never heard of this by anyone else.
ANY experts out there, or with good knowledge of this, unlike me?
THANKS!
Answers:
His image or likeness cannot be copyrighted (nor yours for that matter), but any compilation of his image and graphics can be, as well as a particular image (if he owns the film on which a picture is stored, THAT image can be copyrighted by him, but not your image of him on your camera. You can copyright that.). It's not his image that can't be reproduced, but the image that is contained on the master 'film' that was used to produce the artwork. His being in government or accepting donations is irrelevant.
His campaign poster is no different than a musician's album cover. Either can be used under the Fair Use clause of copyright law, but that does not give the public at large carte blanc to use it in any way they want. The use must fall within the guidelines of the clause.
Examples of Fair Use are authors who quote other authors. They don't have to pay for or get permission for that. Uses that are obviously satirical don't need permission, either. Uses that only contain a small portion of the original work and don't damage the original author's ability to profit from his work are exempt, also. As for images, any image that is copyrighted, but in the public arena (on TV, the internet, etc) can be used for satire, public information (news stories), or examples of a particular style (a larger work that cites campaign banners, for example). Private use of his logo for purposes other than those listed above can be forbidden by the copyright holder.
Ironically, Obama's supporters cannot use his logo to insinuate fidelity with him, but his detractors can use it to exemplify which candidate to avoid.
it is possible to copyright certain images used in a campaign. If the photo of the candidate is used for the purpose of news reporting, then it can be used. I have not been following him (I am a Rep.) so I don't know what the O image is. But if it contains graphic designs, a slogan or something other than his photo then you should not be using it.
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