Posting pictures of U.S. troops

Copyright Issues

[twist]

My friends brother is in the US Marine Corps over in Kuwait. He sent her some pictures. One of the pictures is of him with Rob Shneider. My website is about my local area and this picture would go great with my website. She asked if I would put it on my website.

I took a little law but am a little fuzzy on some issues.

I know I can show Rob Shneider's image because he is a public figure. (think of tabloids)

I also know that most government employees are considered public figures and thus are allowed to have photos printed without their permission. (senators, congressmen, president)

There is no liable in this case because it is just him standing with Rob Shneider.

But, someone said I might need permission directly from the military to show this photo.

I was also wondering if a U.S. troop looses his right to not have his photo published because he works for the government and is thus considered a public figure. Meaning, will I need her brothers direct permission to post a photo of him?

Anybody have any knowledge in this area?

[BigDave]

It seems to me that the only permission you need to worry about is the permission of the person that took the picture, who is the owner of the copyright.

If it was a picture that was taken in a restricted access area, they could get in trouble for sending it out, but you are certainly not going to have problems with USO type pictures published with the permission of the marine.

[whoisgregg]

Are you using the picture as "news" or as "promotional materials?" If you want to put a picture of someone on an advertisement for your website then you need permission from that person (celebrity or not). If the picture is reporting the facts of an event, then you need permission from the photographer, not the subjects.

So the brother and Mr. Schneider can be ignored, but you need to find out who the person holding the camera was and get permission from them. The photographer is the creator of an original work, therefore owns copyright.

I was also wondering if a U.S. troop looses his right to not have his photo published because he works for the government and is thus considered a public figure

This is not the case -- a U.S. soldier has the same rights as any other U.S. citizen in private matters. The exception is that the U.S. government doesn't need to get permission from the soldier to publish their picture for advertising/promotional purposes (The whole "we could order you to give permission" thing.) Soldiers you see in "Go Army" commercials are not asked their permission or compensated for that appearance.

[twist]

The picture of him with rob schneider would be just for the purpose of, "hey, here is one of our troops with rob schneider." The picture isn't staged or in some type of setup. It looks more like he handed his 35mm disposable camera to a friend and asked him to take a quick snapshot. I say this because there are people casualy working in the background behind him paying no attention to them.

He also has a lot more pictures, like him with a camel, santa with a machine gun and about five other celebrities. They all look like they were takin with the same cheap camera.

I can understand if it was some type of professional photo like they take at the mall with santa and your kids, with all the troops lined up and a photographer taking photos of the troops as they one by one meet the celebrities, but this is nothing like that.

I wonder if that makes a difference because her getting in contact with her brother is not the easiest thing to do and could take quite some time.

[Chris_R]

Cheap cameras took the rodney king beating video.

Technically you need the permission of the person that took it. Unless you follow one of the exemptions which are lengthy and complicated.

However - many - and I am not encouraging this - do the "It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission". If he handed his camera to a friend to take the picture - I think you could argue it was his picture anyway. The guy basically volunteered to do it for free. Knew it was going to be on the film and could expect he was going to use it.

Anyway - I think your chances of getting in any sort of trouble for this are about 1 in 230,984,999.

I'd say you are in the clear, but I am not a lawyer.

[twist]

I guess in the worse case scenerio if the guy who took the picture found my obscure website and decided he wanted me to remove the picture I would happily comply. I cut some of the excess off the picture so if the person wants to prove that it is his picture he would just have to send me the full picture. I wonder how local newspapers and news programs show so many pictures of the troops, must be terribly complicated.

[whoisgregg]

I agree with Chris_R about your odds of getting in trouble on this one.

Of course, if you get in trouble because you didn't do what you knew had to be done, how will you feel then? ;) I prefer to always just get permission from the right person (less worrying).

I wonder how local newspapers and news programs show so many pictures of the troops, must be terribly complicated

They use mostly freelance photographers who have worked out deals with the news outlet OR when 'joe citizen' submits a picture, the paper gets permission from the photographer if that person is anyone other than 'joe citizen' (else permission is implicit in the submission).