Do these kind of affiliate sites break the law?

Copyright infringement

[spikedo55]

If you created a site about Britney Spears (bad example, I know) and sold posters of the singer on that site, is that, technically, legal? In a sense, you are promoting products others sell and presumably their distributors pay royalties to Brintey's mgmt. company to do that. So Britney would be happy because you are indirectly making her money.

But in another sense, you are using her likeness and her name for your gain. That to me sounds like grounds for a copyright infringement case. I would surmise that famous people just tolerate this cause it indirectly promotes them and their products.

Any comments?

[Shak]

some of the world top affiliate sites are like these, fan or information sites giving lots of information and then promoting products etc etc.

I was doing a search today for "The Warriors" (weird film 1979) and came across 1 of these sites, with MUCH information and then links to buy related stuff (video, dvd, music etc etc)

I think companies tolerate this and have not taken any drastic action as of yet,

Shak

[SinclairUser]

I thought the warriors was a pretty cool film back in the 70s - it looks a bit dated now - even silly.

But I digress - sorry.

[MrSpeed]

spikedo55-
I think you said it. Ultimately Britney gets the royalties so the heads are turned the other way.
It's all a giant self feeding money machine.

However if you charge people money to look at the pictures of Britney then you will probably get noticed.

[europeforvisitors]

Simple answer: No.

[spikedo55]

No what? Please explain your answer.

[europeforvisitors]

I was responding to your references to copyright infringement, which doesn't enter into the picture here. Names and people can't be copyrighted; only works that meet certain requirements can be. See:
[benedict.com...]

Of course, if you were using a picture of Britney Spears that someone else had taken and hadn't assigned or licensed to you, then you would be guilty of copyright infringement--but you'd be infringing the photo owner's copyright, not any imagined copyright of Britney Spears. (The same would apply if you started selling posters based on somebody else's photo of a building, a landscape, or the moon.)

There could be other legal issues involved, of course. For an example, see the BBC News article on the recent lawsuit over unauthorized photos of a wedding between Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones:

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

Bottom line:

1) It isn't a violation of copyright to use a celebrity's name or likeness, IF you own the rights to the photo.

2) It's conceivable that you might be sued on other grounds, though, and--even if the lawsuit is of questionable legal merit--the burden would be on you to defend yourself at great expense. If you want to be safe, stick to posters of dogs and cats.

[iThink]

>>europeforvisitors>>>If you want to be safe, stick to posters of dogs and cats.

I have been selling posters through affiliate program of an online posters store since last 1 year and have been using the names of celebrities frequently on my site. So far I have not had any problem because I am using their names in a decent manner.

I assume the moment I start using terms such as "xyz person nude", I will attract attention and action.

IMO it is not possible to have a affiliate site without using one trademarked term or another. In other words you have to mention the name of the products that you are selling and using "cats and dogs" instead of that brand name does not work.

[europeforvisitors]

Trademarks aren't any more relevant to this discussion than copyright is.

In any case, I'd hope that no one would be foolish enough to go into the celebrity-poster business without consulting an attorney about the specifics of what he or she proposed to do.