Copyright Infringement (Celebrity images) *HELP*

Hello friends,

i have designed a php-nuke 7.4 theme for an american client whose primary requirement is a hot n bold Hip Hop based theme. i have spent nearly 20 hours to design it from scratch and she liked it very much. please have a look at the theme http://www.loungespot.net/index.php

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now the problem is
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i was in need of some celebrity images for the theme, to make it good looking, i searched the google for the pics, i got a few of them from the client aswell and a few from the search engine, i have applied my designing skills to make them look hot n sexy.

i don't know if the images are copyrighted or not, i personally think using celebrity images is not illegal, but i think i have lack of information in this area.so am not sure. my client is satisfied with my work and she love the theme more then any other on the net. but her host told her that she could get in trouble if she use the images as he think using such celebrity images on the website is not legal.

Now i need expert help from you experienced guys as i am a student of computers science and not into this business from long. so guys please check out my work and let me know if you can help me obtaining sorta information.

and please post your personal comments, what do you think personally abt the issue, and any suggestions or feedback will be very useful to me.


Thanks in advance.

Best regards.

Amol

I've moved this thread from the Lounge, since Business Help is the forum where discussion of copyright and other such law should occur.

I'm not lawyer or law student, but I believe you are legally entitled to use those images under certain fair use restrictions...

information which clearly stipulates it's a fuzzy issue ...

What do you mean, could you please explain me the meaning of the above line.

Follow the link ...

It is 100% a copyrite violation.
See the US Copyrite office at http://www.copyright.gov for more information.

Copyrite >> Copyright

The issue is the likeness of celebrities. It is a violation if you don't secure the permission of the photographer (always) but assuming you do have that permission, refer back to the link I posted about celebrity photos.

Or, in other words using an explicit example:

You take two photos. One of President Bush and one of me. You own the copyright on both photos. However, only the photo of Mr. Bush can you post on your website because he is both 1. a celebrity and 2. a public official. You cannot publish a photo of me without my permission even if you own the rights to the photo because I am neither a celebrity nor a public official.

I'm sorry, but I can't find anything about celebrities or public officials in the copyright laws.
I do know, however, that taking images from other peoples sites, in this case throught Google, IS a violation as stated by the US Copyright Office... "The original authorship appearing on a website may be protected by copyright. This includes writings, artwork, photographs, and other forms of authorship protected by copyright."

It may also be public domain, some things are, particularly historic photos. But generally if you grab it off the web it belongs to someone.

The right to control one's likeness is not a copyright law. It is as much a matter of privacy and exploitation.

Newspaper photographers can clue you in. Take a picture of a large crowd: ok. Take a picture of one person, and out comes the release form. One page, pretty simple, that gives them permission to publish your photograph in their newspaper. See: Model Release Form

And it may be noted, that such forms often have a time restriction and that several models sued after posters they posed for stayed up much longer than the agreement: News Story

It's way beyond copyright when you're dealing with people. It's up to judge and jury, not so cut and dry as an RIAA lawsuit.

<edit/disclaimer>
I am not an attorney. I have studied some aspects of business law as a graduate for personal interest particularly as pertinent to music publishing. I had an entertainment lawyer for a professor and I asked questions. Also, I keep up on things. But for real legal advice always consult a professional.

Please note that i just culled a few celebrity images from google image search but that does not mean that the pictures are google's copyright. google search different websites and web pages for the considered image or content and it directly display it in its search results, even if i search for my own name my own web page's images get into the search results. i have seen this. now here in this case is it a copyright infringement by google as google never obtained or requested any license from me for using my images.

hey guys u all must have seen many wallpapers and images with copyright watermarks on them.i think if there is no copyright watermark on any image then it turns to be a non copyrighted content. No how the hell one will come to know if the considered image is copyrighted or not ?

Well i think i should plan a case against google for using my images now ! hahahahaha just kidding....

but i need answers, i am still not able to find any appropriate information regarding celebrity images copyright infringement.

If you look at it from a moral standpoitn then you probably shouldn't use them. I mean I know I wouldn't like some trigger happy photographer putting my pic all over a website.