Donald Trump could have broken the law by selling merchandise of his mugshot
As the internet continues to be flooded with merchandise featuring former President Donald Trump's now-infamous mugshot, his campaign team could be in hot water legal experts have warned.
Donald Trump's campaign may have violated US copyright law by selling merchandise featuring the mugshot. Within just three days of the mugshot from the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, being publicised, the Trump campaign had made $7.1 million from the merch.
Merchandise included T-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers. Most of it featured the historic photo, the first mugshot of a former US president, with the slogan 'Never surrender' and went for anything between $12 and $34.
A website called Trump Save America JFC has been launched as a joint fundraising committee on behalf of Donald J Trump for President 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)But legal experts have said the Republican front-runner's campaign funds made using the mugshot may rightfully belong to the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office took the photo and under US copyright law, the law enforcement agency that takes a mugshot is the legal owner of it.
The 2022 University of Georgia School of Law's Journal of Intellectual Property Law explained: "In the context of photographs taken by law enforcement during the booking process, the author of the mugshot photograph is the law enforcement agency."
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Merchandise has been created using Trump's now infamous mugshot (Getty Images)Betsy Rosenblatt, professor at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law, says there are no limitations to what people may do with such photos. Speaking to Spectrum News 1 Ohio she said: "You're prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorisation".
She continued: "You're prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorisation, or that is to say distributing anything that isn't the one copy you already lawfully have, and various other things. Making a public display of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here."
Plenty of merchandise has been springing up on the internet featuring the mugshot (AFP via Getty Images)Trump's campaign did not make any alterations to the mugshot, so he cannot claim he substantially altered it from its original in a way to create something new, said MSNBC's Dean Obeidallah. Adding that since the campaign if profiting off the image, it also cannot claim fair use.
However, the Trump campaign appeared to be aware of the potential legal violation. Chris LaCivita, one of Trump's top advisers, tweeted: "If you are a campaign, PAC, scammer and you [are] trying to raise money off the mugshot of @readlDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission... WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU you will NOT SCAM DONORS."
However, the final decision would lay with the Fulton County Sheriff's Office as to whether to sue the Trump campaign and any others that have used the mugshot for financial gain. The department may decide it is "not going to undertake the expense and trouble of hiring copyright counsel and sending out takedowns and case-and-desist letters, or in lawsuits", explained Ms Rosenblatt.
Trump mugshot T-shirts have been on sale across the country (AFP via Getty Images)Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat recently pleaded with commissioners for funds that he said he desperately needs for the prison. He described how "hundreds of toilets and sinks" in the prison are out of order.
"It's a human crisis," he said, "and I have been begging for the resources for 887 days. I'm really, really tired of begging for money to do my job."
Trump was booked in the notorious Rice Street Fulton County Jail on August 24 on 13 counts of allegedly tampering with the 2020 election in Georgia. The former president has denied any wrongdoing and has referred to the case as "election interference" and a "politically motivated" "witch hunt".
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