Legality of 'celebrity' content
 

What is the situation with using celebrity photos and doctoring to make profit? Is it even legal?

doctoring is what will get you in the most trouble, altering or modifying material you know is copyrighted will get you in trouble with the Feds (and not only civil stuff) via the DMCA, but thats as much as i know

-alec

See Perfect 10 vs. Cybernet Ventures

even if it might be technically legal i wouldnt touch it

isn't cybernet ventures adultcheck?

Yes.

I'm curious about this as well. Anyone have more detailed info? Apparently there's something legal going on because so many sites openly have this stuff.

It is illegal. Period.

Can't use the pics (altered or not) and can't use anything close to the name. You will get sued - or at least threatened - and you will lose.

Why? Too many other profitable - albeit "hard working" avenues to take.

:2 cents:

too risky

Sign up with http://www.XPays.com (good advise when no referer code is given)

They have the legal Paris Hilton video in their affiliate program.

as long as its for "newsworthy purposes" like mrskin, you're fine

Ya, mr skin operates under fair use laws, if you plan on doing that, see a lawyer first.

"In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and "transformative" purpose such as to comment upon, criticize or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. Another way of putting this is that fair use is a defense against infringement. If your use qualifies under the definition above, and as defined more specifically later in this chapter, then your use would not be considered an illegal infringement."

It's not illegal -- period. Check out the facts at the Stanfard Fair Use site -- lots of good information.

-alec

ps. I have never heard of anyone getting sued -- the one exception being Perfect 10 because people used their images to make fake nudes of celebrities. Does anyone have any verification for what theyve said?

does Mr. Skin publish celeb photos other than screencaps from the movies he reviews?

there is no 'fair use' when it comes to publishing a photograph owned by somebody else. A photographer or photo service couldn't make a living if just because a person or event was famous and newsworthy that made it ok to publish their photos without being paid or permission being granted.

i have no idea what's inside Mr. Skin.

Yeah, Pictures are out of the question. Unless your capping. The only pictures mr.skin posts are caps. Movie clips with some sort of review or comment seem to be the loophole.