Home > Research Legal Advice > Intellectual Property > Is it legal for a ticket website to use artist's faces when advertising ...
Asked about 1 year ago - Buffalo, NY
FlagWe have a client who sets event tickets. He got a letter from MLB because he was using images that had MLB logos in them without their permission. We are replacing the images with stock photos that we are purchasing but there are still images on the site for musicians, broadway performances, vegas shows etc...that we are not sure if they were properly licensed. A. Do we need to properly license the images if we are advertising tickets for an artist and can we use any public photos? B. If we have permission from the person who took the photo can it still be used? Thank you!
A. Yes, you need to properly license the images and you cannot use any photos just because they are public. Typically artists will freely license their likeness when it is to promote their own ticket sales.
B. If you have permission from the photographer, you should still get the permission from the subject in the photograph. Typically the photographer will have a model release or other permission already and can grant that to you.
This is an excellent question. You were likely contacted by MLB because the pictures displayed one or more of MLB's trademarks or the pictures were copyrighted to MLB. The licensing / release issues related to photographs can be complex because it isn't always clear whether the photographer or the person appearing in the photograph owns the copyright.
For you business, the best practice would be, upon booking an event, contact the manager or PR department of the act or performer and request a photograph that you may use to promote the event on your ticket-sales website. In almost every instance, you should receive a photograph that you can use. My guess is that you can get this taken care of very quickly (as the performers and acts stand to benefit significantly by having pictures associated with their events).
I hope that is helpful. Best of luck with your site and your future!
-Tyson-
http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/84101-ut-tyson-sn...
http://www.socialmediaesq.com
When using images of people or events, there may be issues of copyright, right of publicity, and right of privacy.
Just because you are purchasing images, that does not necessarily mean you have the unfettered right to use the images. Your purchase may have various limitations on usage. Further, the seller of the images may not have the right to sell you the images. Therefore, you should confirm the seller's rights in the images.
Even though you may be using images of the artists to promote their own performances, they could have rights of publicity and/or privacy that might be violated if you use their images without permission.
Michael
www.shimokaji.com
You cannot use these images without getting permission from (a) the owners of the trademarks that are shown in the images (such as MLB), and (b) the individual performers or athletes who appear (who have rights of publicity) in the images. This is so even if the tickets will be sold for a show in which the artist appears. The person who took the photograph cannot give you the permissions you need--he owns the copyright in the photograph, but he cannot grant you permission to display the trademark and the images of individual celebrities and performers. You need to work with experienced IP counsel to assure that you are handling this correctly.
By the way--be careful about using stock photographs. There are many sites on the internet that sell stock photographs without having the right to do so. Only work with sites that are legitimate (such as Getty Images), I would be especially wary of so-called "free" stock photograph sites. Also, when you license stock photographs, you have to make sure the license extends to your proposed use---some of the licenses are quite limited in scope and may not extend to the use that you have in mind. Fees for commercial uses such as this can be much higher than fees for non-commercial use.
Don't speak legalese? We define thousands of terms in plain English.
Browse our legal dictionary