
It's Me, In an Ad, On Facebook. Is This Legal? Allowed? Who Knows? - Dramatize
http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/07/looky_here_its_me_in_an_ad_on_facebook_is_this_legal_allowed_who_knows.php
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thinkcomp
This is pretty clear copyright infringement. Whoever took the picture owns the
copyright.

Being a public figure would matter if this were a first amendment free speech
issue, but it's not. It's just a plain violation of the Lanham Act, both due
to the copyright infringement (17 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq) and because of the
false advertising claim (15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)(1)(B)) you could make because of
the impression that the person endorses the ad (but I'm not a lawyer, for the
record). So no, it's not legal, and illegal acts should not be allowed by any
company's terms of service.

It's also ironic given how Facebook got its start (i.e. Facemash), which was
by misusing photos copyrighted by Harvard.

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w1ntermute
But doesn't Facebook claim ownership of the copyright if you upload a photo to
its site?

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darklajid
Ignoring the other answers about the legal aspect: He _didn't_ upload that
picture to Facebook anyway.

The article states, that this was the cover picture of one of his books.

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edanm
He doesn't say that it wasn't uploaded to Facebook, he says it wasn't a
profile picture.

I would think this was a nitpick, except he specifically said "not a profile
picture" so my guess is he _did_ upload it to Facebook.

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johnbattelle
Guys, I think, no matter how "nice" AppSumo is in deflecting this stuff, the
fact is, they've done it before, and they keep doing it. It's shady, and it's
rather lame.

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WordSkill
This doesn't surprise me in the least, Appsumo is a pretty scummy operation,
regardless of how much PR effort they put into cultivating the HN audience.

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techiferous
What have they done that is scummy?

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diolpah
Try signing up for their spamletter. Then try reading halfway through their
incredibly annoying spam when you get it. It reads like the transcription of a
carnival barker.

I don't know if their practices are actually scummy. But their communication
definitely has the same feel as most scummy MLM materials.

~~~
alanfalcon
They're trying to mimic the supposed charm of the Groupon deals, but don't
seem to have the skill to do so in a way that's widely appealing. YMMV as to
whether Groupon has or ever had said skill themselves.

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jdp23
Disappointing to see AppSumo using people's photos without permission.

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orijing
Per Facebook's advertising guidelines [1]:

 _Copyrights and trademarks Ads cannot include any content that infringes upon
the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy,
publicity or other personal or proprietary right. The advertiser must have
intellectual property rights to the creative and be permitted to display such
creative as advertising on the Facebook Site._

So yes, it is clearly not allowed, assuming that the copyright holder has not
given the advertiser the permission to use his picture.

[1] <https://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php>

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Dramatize
I'd be interested in Noah's response.

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wacheena
Noah's pretty active on HN (at least reading), so I expect he'll chime in
soon.

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plasma
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think you can make money off someone's
"likeness" (eg, a photo!) without their content?

Especially a portrait shot.

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stevenp
This is not the first time that AppSumo has run an ad with a person's
likeness. When a public figure has a fan page, I think it's safe to say that
it's fair game (per Facebook's TOS) for Facebook advertisers to target fans of
that person. I get targeted ads for authors and bands all the time that use a
similar tactic. It's actually not that different from someone buying a Google
ad using your name. I think what was jarring to Battelle was that he thought
that AppSumo was targeting his friends, and not his "fans".

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forgotAgain
I think what was jarring was that AppSumo was trying to make people believe
that Battelle was associated with and/or endorsed their product.

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Confusion
It's a disruptive, unorthodox, mischievous public relations hack. Also a legal
and moral hack. Or at least, that's probably how they feel about it. This is
the dark side of thinking outside of the established box: sometimes it's not
that others don't see the outside of the box: it's that, on average, we don't
want anyone to go outside the box in that way.

Remember: getting away with murder is hacking the justice system.

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paisible
Not really surprised, I just went to unsusbcribe from their newsletter this
morning, was getting increasingly tired of their over the top sales shpeel.

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fascinated
Is declaring "Facebook bankruptcy" cool? I thought JB knew about this stuff?

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johnbattelle
Well...I do "know" about it. It's just that I have not found the time to fix
it. I hope to.

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siculars
I'm sure we'll hear from Noah soon enough...

