Noteworthy News

[Thumpalumpacus]

<dbl post edited, not enough coffee yet>

[Thumpalumpacus]

Funny thing about the mugshot - it seems that, in the US, the owner of a booking photo is the agency that took it, not the arrestee. Trump appears to have violated copyright laws by hawking the image.

I was so shocked to learn this, I had to lay down and yell for someone to bring me a sandwich.

Boru

I'm not so sure. I know that federal photographs, unless classified for reasons of security, are automatically and immediately in the public domain. I think that's the case as well with lesser-jurisdiction photos too.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Thumpalumpacus

Funny thing about the mugshot - it seems that, in the US, the owner of a booking photo is the agency that took it, not the arrestee. Trump appears to have violated copyright laws by hawking the image.

I was so shocked to learn this, I had to lay down and yell for someone to bring me a sandwich.

Boru

I'm not so sure. I know that federal photographs, unless classified for reasons of security, are automatically and immediately in the public domain. I think that's the case as well with lesser-jurisdiction photos too.

According to Case Western:

: Elizabeth Rosenblatt, the Oliver C. Schroeder Jr. Distinguished Research Scholar and associate director of the Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology and the Arts at the School of Law, said that copyright ownership of mugshots applies in most jurisdictions. Questions arose following the recent release of former President Donald Trump’s mugshot for his arrest for meddling in the 2020 election. “Whether the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department would decide to enforce its copyright is entirely up to them,” Rosenblatt said. 

Boru

[Fireball]

I'd love to see Fulton County scrape those megabucks off the chump's hide. Talk about shrieks of being persecuted. 

[The Grand Nudger]

It's illegal to profit off the commission of a crime pretty much anywhere - sooooo..you know, I hope Don the Con is holding on to all those griftbux for the inevitable conviction and settling of accounts.

Oh who am I kidding they'll never bury him like they would a normal pleb.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It's illegal to profit off the commission of a crime pretty much anywhere - sooooo..you know, I hope Don the Con is holding on to all those griftbux for the inevitable conviction and settling of accounts.

Oh who am I kidding they'll never bury him like they would a normal pleb.

Legally, he hasn’t yet ‘committed a crime’. And it looks as though Ms. Willis isn’t going to add copyright infringement to the list of charges.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Oh sure - which, for us plebs, can be a real pain in the ass when we get convicted of something. Because you don't technically owe until you're convicted, and what are the chances you still have that money after that fact - or..to put it bluntly, ever did? This quirk of backloading debt isn't limited to criminal proceedings in the us, either. You can learn for the first time that you owe and are delinquent on something you've never had after a civil or criminal judgement, in the us.

Combine with that the fact that your bank account can be targeted, not you - with rights and shit..your money, with none of that...or just whatever money you happen to have in your wallet when a cop stops you. Et voila. Murrica. Or, at least, Murrica for the rest of us......

[Thumpalumpacus]

Plus, copyright infringement is a civil and not a criminal charge.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Plus, copyright infringement is a civil and not a criminal charge.

Since you can go to prison for it, I’m pretty sure it’s a criminal offense.

Boru

[LinuxGal]

Plus, copyright infringement is a civil and not a criminal charge.

Every time I rented a VHS from Blockbuster the damn thing told me I was going to Leavenworth for life plus 50 years if the FBI caught me copying Bambi and shit.