The unauthorized commercial use or sale of someone's likeness (face or image), name or signature on a product is prohibited by California's "Right of Publicity" law and some privacy laws. To find out if you are allowed to sell products, stuff or goods with signatures, names or likenesses of other people, look at the guidelines below. not allowing these items on the site protects you from liability and helps make Details.at a safe place for trading. Selling or buying these items could put you at risk for civil or criminal liability, and could result in the ending of your listing or suspension from Details.at.
General Guideline on Use of Someone's Image or Likeness
If the product you are offering uses a imagegraph of a person, but the product wasn't made or authorized by that person, it probably is an infringing use of their likeness. (If you don't own the picture, its use in a product may also violate copyright laws. However, even if you own the imagegraph or took it yourself, the right to commercialize someone's picture is a right separate from copyright, and usually requires separate permission.)
General Guideline on Use of Someone's Signatures
If the product you are selling has a copy of a person's name or their signature, but it wasn't made or authorized by that person, it probably is an infringing use of the name or signature. Here are some examples of potentially infringing uses of imagegraphs and signatures:
� A key chain bearing a picture of a rock star (even if you took the picture yourself at a concert)
� A scanned copy of an original picture of a baseball player, which original was signed by that player
� A mouse pad bearing a picture of a movie star
� A CD containing pictures of a singer taken from various sources on the Internet. (Even if you had permission to download the pictures, you probably don't have the right to sell them for a profit.)
� A light switch cover bearing Garth Brooks' name
For More Information About Use of Someone's Image, Name or Signature
California Right of Publicity Law
International Trademark Association - FAQs on Trademarks
Avoiding Trademark, Patent and Copyright Problems (Franklin Pierce Law Center)