# Is it legal to print a drawn face of a politician ?



## ibosen (Feb 2, 2016)

Is it legal to print a drawn face of a politician ?? If it is illegal i know there is someway in doing it legally, i mean a lot of t-shirts with politician or presidents already exist. And a lot of cartoons do it like south park, they usually just state that the character are fiction and do not exist when they clearly are a certain celebrity/politician and usually the character is also named after them, like Obama or tom cruise in south park, or mike tyson in the simpsons


----------



## sindhu g n (Feb 9, 2016)

hi
its legal when you draw it by yourself, but its not if you "copy" it from google.


----------



## ibosen (Feb 2, 2016)

sindhu g n said:


> hi
> its legal when you draw it by yourself, but its not if you "copy" it from google.


That is not what i'am talking about


----------



## David09 (Oct 2, 2015)

its illegal anyway


----------



## Ripcord (Sep 2, 2006)

If it's illegal to draw the face of a politician, a lot of political cartoonists are in a heap of trouble.


----------



## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

You have to ask yourself is it worth attempting? You can alter it enough (as seen in the example below) that you can fight it, but at what cost. In the political realm, if it's a great design, chances are the ones with deep pockets will see it and use a cease and desist action against you.

*
Fair use.* A modified photo of a Wisconsin mayor was reproduced on a t-shirt and used to raise money for an event opposed by the mayor. *Important factors:* The Seventh Circuit was primarily persuaded by the level of alteration – the photo was posterized, background removed, text added, and a lime green outline featuring the mayor’s smile remained. The resulting image of the mayor, the court stated, “can’t be copyrighted.” _Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC,_ No. 13-3004 (7th Cir. Sept. 15, 2014). - See more at: Summaries of Fair Use Cases - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center


----------



## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

ibosen said:


> And a lot of cartoons do it like south park, they usually just state that the character are fiction and do not exist when they clearly are a certain celebrity/politician and usually the character is also named after them, like Obama or tom cruise in south park, or mike tyson in the simpsons.


TV shows are governed under different laws than t-shirt designs. So South Park and The Simpsons are not good examples in this case.



ibosen said:


> Is it legal to print a drawn face of a politician ?? If it is illegal i know there is someway in doing it legally, i mean a lot of t-shirts with politician or presidents already exist.


There are two legal issues to consider.

First is the copyright ownership of any source image you create your drawing from. If you are creating your own original drawing, you should be ok. But if you are creating a drawing from an existing image, then you need to make sure you change it enough to not be able to identify the original image. There is no specified amount of change that makes it yours. If the original copyright owner can identify their image as the source, they can take action for copyright infringement.

Second is Right of Publicity, which grants all people the exclusive right to profit off their name and likeness. By drawing a person's face and printing it on a t-shirt for sale (without license or permission), you are potentially at risk to be sued. It is a common misconception that elected officials waive their Right of Publicity when they take office. This is not true. That said, they rarely take legal action in these cases because they don't want the negative media attention during a lawsuit. So politicians are typically fair game to use on t-shirts. Celebrities, however, are known to aggressively protect their name and likeness on merchandise. So Donald Trump, like Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger, are much more likely to sue than the average politician. So be cautious if that is who you were planning to draw.


----------



## David09 (Oct 2, 2015)

^^^ I think Tim defined completely awesome


----------



## TshirtBonus (Jan 19, 2016)

I felt like this funny parody shirt of Donald Trump was worth attempting:

https://tshirtbonus.com/products/nope

It's drawn from scratch, unlike Shepard Fairey's Obama/Hope illustration.

It's my best selling shirt.


----------

