Some states seek to ban anti-war speech - Page 5 - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

AshleyKennedy · #61 (**permalink**) 02-10-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beer

Isnt this a privacy issue?

No the names of casualties are in the public domain. Unlike the names of women who have had abortions.

CNN is a company that also uses the names, is CNN going to be stopped?

Forces: U.S. & Coalition/Casualties - Special Reports from CNN.com

MattLarson · #62 (**permalink**) 02-10-2008

Using the names of the casualties (or anyone else for that matter) for commercial gain without express consent is actionable.

Matt

Si modo · #63 (**permalink**) 02-10-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by AshleyKennedy

No the names of casualties are in the public domain. Unlike the names of women who have had abortions....

Why would you think those who have had a legal medical procedure would be listed on the net? Simply nonsense.

42 Regular · #64 (**permalink**) 02-18-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slon

Lawmakers seek to stop anti-war T-shirts from naming dead soldiers | www.azstarnet.com Â®

I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Obviously a major violation of free speech.

Actually using the name or image of a deceased person without writen permission of the surviving family can be prevented by injunctions.
It violates the right to privacy of the family.

The Family of Che Guevera actually got just this sort of injunction years ago on use of the Iconic photo of Che.
Artistic non photo graphic images based on the photo aren't covered.

Slon · #65 (**permalink**) 02-20-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by 42 Regular

Actually using the name or image of a deceased person without writen permission of the surviving family can be prevented by injunctions.
It violates the right to privacy of the family.

The Family of Che Guevera actually got just this sort of injunction years ago on use of the Iconic photo of Che.
Artistic non photo graphic images based on the photo aren't covered.

I don't see how it can reasonably, with any sense of liberty as a goal, assumed that a government worker (US soldier) working for the US army in a public war, dying, and having his name released, should be protected from having his name publicly used due to privacy rights. Of course, with the way the US is nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised that this is the norm.

goober · #66 (**permalink**) 02-20-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by 42 Regular

Actually using the name or image of a deceased person without writen permission of the surviving family can be prevented by injunctions.
It violates the right to privacy of the family.

The Family of Che Guevera actually got just this sort of injunction years ago on use of the Iconic photo of Che.
Artistic non photo graphic images based on the photo aren't covered.

But the name and information and official photo of the deceased become public domain as soon as they are published.
The official photo and the name and vital statistics are information, and cannot be copyrighted.

The Guevara injunction was sought by the photographer protecting the copyright on a privately owned photo.

42 Regular · #67 (**permalink**) 02-21-2008

Quote:

1. Invasion of Privacy

Every person has a right to be left alone --this is called the right of privacy. A release is needed to use a living person's name or image in a manner that constitutes an invasion of the person's right to privacy. Releases are vital because a person whose privacy is invaded can sue for monetary damages. Generally, invasion of privacy isn't an issue for individuals who are dead.

Note "Generally", as in not in all cases.

Quote:

2. Right of Publicity

The right of publicity grew out of the general principles of invasion of privacy that prohibited the appropriation of a person's name or likeness to gain some benefit. Within the past few decades, the right of publicity has emerged as an independent type of claim that can be made when a person 's name or likeness is used for commercial purposes. Although the right of publicity is commonly associated with celebrities, every person, regardless of how famous, has a right to prevent unauthorized use of their name or image to sell products. The right of publicity extends beyond the commercial use of a person's name or image and includes the use of any personal element that implies an individual's endorsement of a product, provided that the public can identify the individual based upon the use.

The right of publicity extends to a performer's identifiable voice. For example, in two separate cases, advertisements that used vocal performances that sounded like singers Tom Waits and Bette Midler were found to violate the singers' rights of publicity. In both of these cases, the advertising agency had sought permission from the performer and when it was not granted, the singer's voice was deliberately imitated--a good example of what not to do. As rule of thumb, if the performer 's voice mimics a well-known performer, either accidentally or intentionally, avoid using it.

In many states, the right of publicity survives death and can be exercised by the person's estate.

Stanford Copyright & Fair Use - What Is a Release

Putting the deceased name on a T-shirt with an anti-Iraq war message would imply that the deceased was against the Iraq war. This could be untrue of the individual , and could cause emotional distress to his family.

The T-Shirts are bought and sold, the names are the major selling point of the product.
The manufacturer would be profiting from use of the names due to publicity surrounding the death of the deceased.
Unlike a News Paper article theres no Journalistic freedom involved in selling T-shirts.

Quote:

The Guevara injunction was sought by the photographer protecting the copyright on a privately owned photo.

I'm fairly sure the Family brought up the first injunction against use of the image. I'll check.

Looks like the Photographer as well as the family objected to unauthorized use.

Quote:

Che Guevara's family to fight use of famed photo
Monday, August 29, 2005 Posted: 1335 GMT (2135 HKT)

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- With his picture on rock band posters, baseball caps and women's lingerie, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is firmly entrenched in the capitalist consumer society that he died fighting to overturn.

The image of the Argentine-born guerrilla gazing sternly into the distance, long-hair tucked into a beret with a single star, has been an enduring 20th century pop icon.

The picture -- taken by a Cuban photographer in 1960 and printed on posters by an Italian publisher after Guevara's execution in Bolivia seven years later -- fired the imagination of rioting Parisian students in May 1968 and became a symbol of idealistic revolt for a generation.

But as well as being one of the world's most reproduced, the image has become one of its most merchandised. And Guevara's family is launching an effort to stop it. They plan to file lawsuits abroad against companies that they believe are exploiting the image and say lawyers in a number of countries have offered assistance.

"We have a plan to deal with the misuse," Guevara's Cuban widow Aleida March said in an interview.

"We can't attack everyone with lances like Don Quixote, but we can try to maintain the ethics" of Guevara's legacy, said March, who will lead the effort from the Che Guevara Studies Center which is opening in Havana later this year.

"The center intends to contain the uncontrolled use of Che's image. It will be costly and difficult because each country has different laws, but a limit has to be drawn," the legendary guerrilla's daughter, Aleida Guevara, told Reuters.

Swatch has used Guevara on a wristwatch. Advertising firms have used his image to sell vodka. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen even took to the runway in Brazilian underwear stamped with Che's face.

Guevara collectibles -- from Zippo lighters to belt buckles and key chains -- can be bought online at thechestore.com.

But a successful copyright lawsuit against Smirnoff vodka in Britain in 2000 set the precedent for legal action, establishing ownership of the photographic image.

Lawyers say it will be an uphill struggle to deter non-photographic use of such a widely reproduced image, other than in countries like Italy where laws protect image rights.

The famous picture was shot by Alberto Diaz, a fashion photographer better known as Korda, at a funeral for victims of the explosion of a French freighter transporting weapons to Cuba one year after Fidel Castro's revolution triumphed with the help of Guevara.

Korda's group photograph was not printed by his newspaper the next day. Seven years later, when Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli showed up looking for a cover picture for an edition of Che's "Bolivian Diary," Korda gave him two prints for free.

Guevara was captured six months later in the Bolivian jungle, where his bid to start an armed peasant revolution ended in fiasco. On news on his death, Feltrinelli cropped the photo and published large posters that quickly sold 1 million copies.

The guerrilla fighter was transformed into martyr, pop celebrity and radical chic poster boy.

Korda said he never received a penny from Feltrinelli.

But a year before his death in 2001, the photographer won a lawsuit against London agency Lowe Lintas for unauthorized use of the picture in a Smirnoff vodka advertising campaign. The Smirnoff brand is now owned by Britain's Diageo.

Korda later donated the $70,000 award to children's health care in communist Cuba.

Razi Mireskandari, the London lawyer who filed the copyright case, said Korda worried that the image of Che, who did not drink, was being trivialized by its use in promoting a alcoholic beverage that bore no relation to Cuba or his political message.

"We felt there were so many people you could take action against that we had to start somewhere," Mireskandari said. "The plan of action was to target one of these, which was Smirnoff, and then, when we got the judgment, we were going to go against everyone else," he said in a telephone interview.

After the photographer's death, his heirs never contacted the lawyer for further action and are disputing among themselves copyright ownership of the famous picture.

Korda's daughter Diana Diaz has continued to fight political misuse of the picture.

In 2003 she won a lawsuit against a Paris-based press rights group for using the Che photograph in a poster campaign aimed at dissuading French tourists from vacationing in Cuba after the jailing of 29 dissident journalists.

Reporters Without Borders had superimposed Che's face on a picture of a baton-wielding riot policeman. The caption said: "Welcome to Cuba, the world's largest jail for journalists."

Che fever was stoked last year by "The Motorcycle Diaries," a film about his eye-opening trip through poverty-stricken countries of South America as a medical graduate.

Even Cuba sells Che's image. Postcards and posters of Guevara playing golf at the Country Club shortly after the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 are popular with tourists.

So are Cuban banknotes issued when Guevara was Central Bank governor, simply signed "Che."

Family of Che Guevara fights on || kuro5hin.org

goober · #68 (**permalink**) 02-22-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by 42 Regular

Note "Generally", as in not in all cases.

Stanford Copyright & Fair Use - What Is a Release

Putting the deceased name on a T-shirt with an anti-Iraq war message would imply that the deceased was against the Iraq war. This could be untrue of the individual , and could cause emotional distress to his family.

The T-Shirts are bought and sold, the names are the major selling point of the product.
The manufacturer would be profiting from use of the names due to publicity surrounding the death of the deceased.
Unlike a News Paper article theres no Journalistic freedom involved in selling T-shirts.

I'm fairly sure the Family brought up the first injunction against use of the image. I'll check.

Looks like the Photographer as well as the family objected to unauthorized use.

Family of Che Guevara fights on || kuro5hin.org

The legal action that succeeded was based on copyright law.

Selling a T-Shirt with the names of the dead is fine, it's like selling a T-Shirt with any government document reproduced on it, it's just information, and information cannot be copyrighted.

42 Regular · #69 (**permalink**) 02-23-2008

Quote:

Korda's daughter Diana Diaz has continued to fight political misuse of the picture.

In 2003 she won a lawsuit against a Paris-based press rights group for using the Che photograph in a poster campaign aimed at dissuading French tourists from vacationing in Cuba after the jailing of 29 dissident journalists.

Reporters Without Borders had superimposed Che's face on a picture of a baton-wielding riot policeman. The caption said: "Welcome to Cuba, the world's largest jail for journalists."

Quote:

The right of publicity extends beyond the commercial use of a person's name or image and includes the use of any personal element that implies an individual's endorsement of a product, provided that the public can identify the individual based upon the use.

Korda owned the copyright not Che's Heirs. The injunction would be based on misuse as in False Light, the use of the image implying that the deceased supported a position which they did not support.
If only those deceased service persons who were known to oppose the Iraq War were used on an anti-war t-shirt then there would be no problem.

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