Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: What is the law regarding posting celebrity pic s on net?

Depending on the individual facts and circumstances of each situation, celebrity photos or "likenesses" used on an internet website are most likely going to be governed by three areas of the law: (1) Right of Publicty statutes and common law; (2) Copyright law; and (3) possibly Trademark law. There may be other circumstances that implicate other substantive areas of the law, but these are the three most likely applicable given your question.

Re: What is the law regarding posting celebrity pic s on net?

One of the big misconceptions people have about the Internet is that anything posted on the Web is in the public domain. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nearly everything on the Web is protected by copyright law, and unless you know for sure otherwise, it is always better to assume that the image (or whatever) is protected by U.S. copyright law.

Playboy has been very successful in suing web site owners who have posted images without permission. Sometimes celebrities lose the right to control images of themselves naked (Dr. Laura comes to mind), but this is almost always the result of someone else owning the copyright, not because the image is in the public domain.

Re: What is the law regarding posting celebrity pic s on net?

That's an interesting question. The owner of the copyright in a given nude picture has the right to determine who distributes it, including on the web. Likewise, celebrities have a right of publicity under California and New York law which allows them to stop their "image or likeness" from being reproduced.

If a website portal or ISP does not know that his website contains nude pictures which constitute copyright infringement or infringement of publicity rights, then in some very narrow circumstances he may be immune.

I am an intellectual property attorney and professor of intellectual property law.

You can see my bio at http://www.schinner.com/html/the_schinner_law_group_-_d__al.html