Celebrity Copyright Law
While you cannot copyright ideas, facts, titles and names according to Title 17 of the U.S. Code, there is copyright protection for "authors of literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual properties, whether published or unpublished." This extends to celebrities responsible for creating such work, as it does the usage of their image or likeness.
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Images
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Copyrighting allows a celebrity to protect, with exclusive, limited rights, something such as a commissioned photograph of themselves, reproducing the photo, creating any type of derivative image related to the original photograph, selling the photograph and/or displaying it wherever they desire. If the photograph is not paid for by the celebrity, then the photographer owns the image and can do as they please with it.
Usage
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Make no mistake, celebrities and photographs taken of them are not public property. Unless specific permission is granted, you may not under any circumstances use the image of a celebrity to advertise your work. Even if you own a photograph with his image and own the copyright of the photograph, it doesn't grant the ability to do anything you like with it. In order to use the image it must be licensed. To find out the status of a particular photo or image of a celebrity and whether it's copyrighted and/or licensed you can contact several agencies including Thomson & Thomson located in Washington, D.C., BZ/Rights & Permissions located in New York, and Dennis Angel, an attorney practicing in New York.
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Dead Celebrities
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Even if the celebrity is dead, his image is often still protected. Under First Amendment protection, you may be able to use his image in a news article or magazine as long as the accompanying article includes some sort of commentary or criticism expressing the author's views.
Length of Copyright Protection
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Like private citizens, celebrities are bound to the same laws governing the duration of protection of a copyright. According to the Copyright Act of 1976, anything created on or after January 1, 1978, has an automatic copyright from the moment of its conception. The copyright extends 50 years, at which point it expires, and the work becomes public domain.
Copyright vs Trademark
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While you are unable to copyright a celebrity's name or work, you can trademark it. The difference between a copyright and a trademark is that a copyright is, according to the Copyright Act of 1976, "protection provided to the authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished." A trademark is, according to Lawmart, "a word, name, symbol or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others." Therefore, you can trademark a celebrity's name and copyright his image.
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References
- Photo Credit newspaper image by Angelika Bentin from Fotolia.com
