Subject:
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Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 25 Feb 2001 01:35:58 GMT
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Hi there.
I'm in a band named The Human Heads. For our recently completed album, we
would like to use a photo I took of a LEGO creation I made. You can see the
album cover itself and other photos of the structure on my Brickshelf account:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=3479
We're selling our CD through mp3.com, but when we tried to use this as our
album cover, they rejected it without explanation. After a month of trying
to get an answer out of them as to why exactly it was rejected, we were
finally told that it was because "you can't use LEGO without their permission".
I'm wondering if fellow LUGNETers would know whether or not this is true,
and just what the legality of the situation is. Does LEGO have rights to
every photo of every LEGO creation ever taken?
By anaolgy, if we wanted to use a photo of a brick wall (as in brick and
mortar) would we have to likewise get the permission of the company that
made those bricks?
I've tried researching similar cases on the net, and did find a band who
claimed that LEGO had told them not to use their LEGO album cover. By
contrast, you might also recall the band Sneaker Pimps had a CD single for
the song "6 Underground" a few years back which was basically just a photo
of a LEGO crater base plate.
I searched the LUGNET archives to see if this topic had been discussed
before and while I did find a few similar cases (selling T-shirts with
photos of MOCs, for example), there was nothing that addressed this issue
directly.
I've also been reading up on copyright laws with books from the library, but
again, I haven't been able to find anything conclusive one way or the other
about this issue specifically.
Finally, if we were to seek permission from LEGO, does anyone know who would
be the appropriate person to contact? And what do you think they'd say, if
anything?
Thanks for any help!
-The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith
http://www.thehumanheads.com
http://www.mp3.com/thehumanheads
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| (...) sure. Why not just contact TLC and ask for permission? Or you could always read Lego's Fair Play documant at: (URL) then just decide for yourself. What is SO wrong with the cd cover design is that Timmy is practically dead center of the design (...) (23 years ago, 25-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| (...) The analogy is invalid. A company making bricks will not have any copyright on the design of those bricks (there may be patents, but patents don't preclude reproducing images of patented items). TLC does hold copyrights on the designs printed (...) (23 years ago, 25-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| "The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith" <thereverend@thereverend.com> wrote in message news:G9AHry.Fny@lugnet.com... (...) the (...) account: (...) trying (...) permission". (...) but (...) other (...) would (...) if (...) I think the way Sneaker Pimps got (...) (23 years ago, 25-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
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| Hi, everybody. Just wanted to fill you guys in on what has happened since I first posted. A fellow LUGNETer sent me the e-mail address of someone at LEGO who deals with these sorts of things, and with whom he had dealt successfully in the past. I (...) (23 years ago, 12-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
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