Legal Question in Entertainment Law in New York

There are two issues. The first is the copyright issue. That is, who owns the copyright interest in the photograph? IN most cases it would be the agency or dept that took it (Sheriff, local PD, state county, etc.). Most of these entities do not enforce copyright ownership rights and will probably never have any way of knowing about your use even if they did. This is why they never go after all those mugshot sites we see (there have been some actions to speak of however).

The other issue is the right of the celeb depicted to control their own publicity and privacy. These are state by state causes of action. For example, if you used the same pic in your print ad campaign without permission I suspect they would have a good case against you. But using the same as d�cor in your establishment would be a very difficult case to make.

While it is important that you keep in mind that in America you can be sued for almost any reason by anyone, I highly doubt that this will be a problem.

If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

866-871-8655

[email protected]

DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.