copy/copyright question

[Exhibitman]

This is a very complex copyright issue. The likely key will be fair use. You might want to look at Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., 336 F. 3d 811 - Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 2003 and Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., 572 F. Supp. 2d 1150 - Dist. Court, ND California 2008.

Another consideration is that it isn't simple to fight a copyright case. To even maintain a copyright claim the author must first have registered his work with the Copyright Office. Registration is required in order to file a copyright case in Federal court and it must take place before the infringing usage if it is to entitle the claimant to attorneys' fees and statutory damages rights under copyright law. If there was no registration pre-use, the pissed off party will have to prove that he subsequently registered the image, that he suffered actual loss from the infringement, and he will have to eat his own attorneys' fees, which makes a lawsuit just about impossible for a typical person to file. And if the image has been 'published' for too long without registration he will be deemed to have lost his right to register it.

And that doesn't even take into account whether the image in question is actually owned by the person doing the whining. You may not own rights in an image just because you own the photo.

BTW, the above is my personal view and not a professional legal opinion--don't even think of relying on it. In the event you do rely on it I will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This post will self-destruct in ten seconds.