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Subject: 
Re: Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Sun, 25 Feb 2001 03:14:58 GMT
Viewed: 
446 times
  
In article <G9AHry.Fny@lugnet.com>, "The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith"
<thereverend@thereverend.com> wrote:

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?

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 on the minfig faces.

I'm not a copyright lawyer. But my guess is, you would need TLC's
permission to be 100% aboveboard legal. I also suspect that if you were
entirely self-distributing and self-promoting (as opposed to using
MP3.com), you could probably get away with it if you managed to stay
under radar. But as far I can see, using that image without TLC's
written permission is just asking for a cease-and-desist letter.

BTW and FWIW, I like the picture as an album cover (though you stuck a
Timmy head in the middle! Ugh!). I'd suggest you go ahead and try to get
permission; the worst that can happen is they say no, which puts you in
no different situation than if you simply give up without asking.

--
Mark D. McKean - The Quantum Panda - qpanda@quantumpanda.com



Message is in Reply To:
  Use of LEGO on album cover... legal or no?
 
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: (URL) (...) (24 years ago, 25-Feb-01, to lugnet.general)  

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