
How LeBron James’ Tattoos Could Affect Baseball - snacktaster
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-lebron-james-tattoos-could-affect-baseball/
======
snacktaster
> LeBron has some awesome ink. It’s a part of his brand, and so back in 2015,
> those tattoos were included in the computerized depiction of LeBron created
> for the NBA2K video game. [...] Ordinarily that wouldn’t have been a big
> deal, except that it led to a lawsuit being filed by Solid Oak Sketches,
> LLC, against the video-game makers, for copyright infringement.

~~~
PakG1
So they're supposed to put LeBron in the game with no tattoos or fake
different tattoos? If someone had a special haircut, could the hair stylist
copyright the haircut? If someone had a special makeup job, could the makeup
artist copyright the makeup job? I don't see how this makes sense. I can
understand a design being copyrighted, but once it's applied and inseparable
from a person, the copyright can still apply?

edit: So nobody would be able to take photos to make posters, coffee mugs,
etc, if the subject has any copyrighted design implemented on their body,
unless they pay a licensing fee to the copyright holder?

~~~
paranoidrobot
> If someone had a special haircut, could the hair stylist copyright the
> haircut?

I imagine this would hinge on whether hair can be considered a tangible
medium.

> If someone had a special makeup job, could the makeup artist copyright the
> makeup job?

I see this as the same issue as tattoos - even though makeup is generally
considered a temporary thing, that doesn't minimise the copyright
applicability - assuming that skin is considered a tangible medium.

Similar body issues: Piercings, studs, etc where the overall arrangement and
application may be considered a unique work of art.

I'd be interested to know if the absence/removal of something would constitute
a work of art being recorded in a tangible medium - i.e a particularly unique
style of hair plucking (eyebrows, say).

~~~
seanalltogether
It's also important to note that fashion design is not eligible for copyright
protection, despite the fact that a logo placed on a shirt is eligible. Would
a hairstyle or makeup be considered as a product design, or a logo design?

------
drivingmenuts
Seems like a tattoo would fall under commissioned artwork, which seems like
the rights should belong to the commissioner, not the artist. Unlike a canvas,
you don't just suddenly wake up with tattoos, unless there's much alcohol
involved.

------
imh
The most interesting part to me here is the fair use aspect. I don't know much
law, but this page [0] seems to suggest that fair use is actually really
flexible and maybe hard to predict. It will be really interesting to see what
happens here.

[0] [https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-
factors/...](https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-
factors/#the_nature_of_the_copyrighted_work)

------
CamTin
This will have 0 effect on baseball, unless you count slightly changing the
way baseball video games are produced.

It's still a crazy of copyright maximalism at work. It's hard to get worked up
about with so many more pressing issues up for grabs today, but even copyright
maximalism is a symptom of a larger problem of the neoliberal world order
having an unstoppable drive to monetize and marketize everything. This is new,
unsettled law because tattoos were always a fringe weirdo outsider thing that
would never ever land in a court. Now that tattoos have become mainstream and
rich people (LeBron James in this case) have them, we have to fit it into this
crazy framework we've invented to let multinational corporations make money on
mouse cartoons. If we don't, there may be _dire consequences_ like setting a
precedent that not every cultural practice can be owned and charged for, and
that property rights are possibly not the most fundamental rights in a free
society.

------
Verdex_3
My plan is that you settle and then pay their licensing fee. At which point
you've got the right to show the tattoos so you use that right. Create a new
basketball player called LeBron Jame's Solid Oak Sketches LLC tattoos. It's
just LeBron Jame's tattoos on an invisible person. It's the worst player and
gets constant heckling from the audience.

LeBron doesn't seem to like where the whole thing is going, so that means he's
also likely to play ball if you bring him some more interesting ideas. Create
a LeBron James with a different set of tattoos by a tattoo artist you
explicitly hire for this purpose. Advertise this artist a _lot_. Make sure the
new artist has the staff to be able to completely consume all of Solid Oak
Sketches LLC business.

Make a campaign mode where LeBron James has all of his tattoos stolen by a
wizard. You have to win a bunch of games to get them back, but they come back
slightly altered such that they are no longer legally Solid Oak Sketches LLC
IP.

