Is the Donald Trump Presidential campaign violating U.S. copyright law? Some legal experts believe he might be.
Trump’s 2024 election team is trying to turn a negative into a positive by rebelliously selling merchandise emblazoned with the former President’s mugshot, taken by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the state of Georgia’s election interference case against him.
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The new merch has proved popular. Sporting the mugshot and the phrase “Never surrender,” the items, which retail for anywhere between $12 and $34 apiece, raised about $7.1 million for the Trump campaign in just the first three days on sale.
However, legal experts have pointed out that the photo legally belongs to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, according to U.S. copyright law.
That means that cool $7 million and change may belong to the FCSO.
“In the context of photographs taken by law enforcement during the booking process, the author of the mugshot photograph is the law enforcement agency,” the 2022 University of Georgia School of Law’s Journal of Intellectual Property Law states.
“You’re prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorization,” Betsy Rosenblatt, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, told Spectrum News 1 Ohio.
“You’re prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorization, 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, making a public performance of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here.”
It does appear that those at the top of the food chain in the Trump campaign are aware of the possible violations. The campaign tweeted out a warning to those under its loose umbrella on August 24.
“If you are a campaign, PAC, scammer and you [are] try raising money off the mugshot of @realDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission …WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU you will NOT SCAM DONORS,” the tweet read.
Essentially, it seems the possible violations will boil down to whether the cash-strapped FCSO deems it a worthy expense to hire copyright lawyers to go after the millions being made off of a photo that is their property. If they do, it will just add another set of court appearances to Trump’s already-sizable legal obligations.