RE: Using Celebrity Photos in Educational Module

["Cate, Beth Ellen" <becate@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

An issue to consider separate from copyright is rights of publicity of famous
persons.  Many states have statutes that grant rights of publicity to famous
persons and give them varying degrees of control over the use of their image
and likeness.  In addition to Pennsylvania law, you may also want to check the
laws of other states in which Penn State has sufficient operations to subject
itself to lawsuits there.

Good luck!

Beth

Beth Cate
Associate General Counsel
Indiana University
Bryan Hall 211
Bloomington, IN  47405
(812) 855-9739 (phone)
(812) 855-0678 (fax)
becate@xxxxxxxxxxx

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-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth J. Pyatt [mailto:ejp10@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:11 PM
To: digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Using Celebrity Photos in Educational Module

Hello:

I have a copyright question about using celebrity photos in an educational
module, I'm hoping someone can clear up.

Our university has a service where you can download educational modules free
for non-commercial use, but of course we want everything to be legal.

The module I'm currently working one is about famous African-American
musicians and composers. The origininal in-house module has photos, but does
not document sources (this version is housed in a password protected site).

But now I'm trying to find alternate images if I can. In one case, I found a
lovely photo of Patti Labelle taken by NASA at a NASA event.
What are the rules for this kind of situation? I know federal government
usually means public domain, but what about celebrities?

Another question is if I can use older Library of Congress photos of artists
like Billie Holliday or Duke Ellington without prior consent

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks

Elizabeth Pyatt

P.S. A second question is that if I find a digital photo where the original
dates from 1911, has it entered "public domain" enough so that it can be
safely used without prior consent?
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Education Technology Services, TLT/ITS
Penn State University
ejp10@xxxxxxx, (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building II
227 W. Beaver Avenue
State College, PA   16801-4819
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/psu
http://tlt.psu.edu