Using Photos of Famous People

Is this legal?

[King_Fisher]

I am putting together a site featuring imported hand bags.

They are similar (not exactly) to handbags carried by movie & TV stars.

Is it permissible to have small pictures of the personalities carrying handbags

positioned randomly around the site? No caption or id on the pictures.

No endorsement implied (other than sublimity). Am I asking for a barrage of

cease and desist letters? Anybody been down this road? Thanks!...KF

[briggidere]

I think it depend where you get the photo's from. They can't stop newspapers publishing photo's of famous people, but it's the copyright of the said images you may have the problem with.

If you can get permission to use the photo's I believe you will be ok

[Beagle]

You might want to have a statement saying that the pictures of celebrities carrying similar bags do not indicate an endorsement. There are all kinds of reasons, most of which you won't even know about, that a particular celebrity might not want to be connected to a particular brand or type of item, and putting the photos in proximity to pictures of the products you're selling could easily be seen as implying that there's an endorsement.

This doesn't have to be a negative thing for you - it could even be a selling point. Fashion magazines do it all the time: "Here's Ms. Movie Star in L.A. last week carrying her PriceyBrand bag that sells for $5000. Here's one that shows the same fashion sense that you can buy for $50."

But, yes, be careful about the copyrights of the photos.

[edited by: Beagle at 2:29 am (utc) on Feb. 28, 2008]

[vol7ron]

Photos may have a copyright, but they also may be free, so check it out. Usually if you reference it somewhere on your site (like at the bottom) saying "photos by ..so-and-so.." or "photos from ..place-and-place.." then you generally have given credit to the author. Like using a quote in a book you might be writing.

In any case if you are selling these photos, or you are charging people membership to your site, you may want to contact a lawyer depending on how much traffic you expect to receive. When there's a dollar transaction its a whole new set of laws. This includes if they were originally selling the image.

[King_Fisher]

Brig, Beagle and Vol, Thanks for the replies and the good answers!

If I understand the answer correctly as long as I get the ok, copyright wise
It will be alright to use the photos, and it some case they might be free with attribution.

My next question what service or vendor do I go to find these type photos?

I know where to go for generic type photos but dont have a clue for photos of celebrities.

Any names that could be mentioned? Thanks!...KF

[vol7ron]

Just type "buy celebrity photos" or "free celebrity photos" in Google and you'll find a good top 3 for each.

[jessejump]

>>>>>> particular celebrity might not want to be connected to a particular brand or type of item, and putting the photos in proximity to pictures of the products you're selling could easily be seen as implying that there's an endorsement.

This seems to me to be the likely response from any celebrity or average citizen.