HeRe opened this issue on Jun 07, 2007 · 277 posts
3Dsmacker posted Sat, 14 July 2007 at 6:04 PM
Pay attention now. This will scoot on by you like Scooter LIbby if you don't. Take a careful look:
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=36000&
In no place here does it say "Jeri Ryan," or "celebrity lookalike." The most it says is "CGI Personalities Series," CGI meaning Computer Generated Image. Meaning that the computer generated it and that the images obtained were not from a photograph that needed licensing. The only place where the assignment of the images to Jeri Ryan is taking place is in the mind of the beholder of the image. No where else is that assignment taking place.
When I was buying my first house, I told my lawyer that I had X amount of dollars in my bank account to make the down payment. And my lawyer said "So, you represent that you have X dollars in your bank account for the purpose of making the down payment." And I said "Uhhh... yes."
In law, everything is a representation. In no place in the above ad is it represented that the CGI image is that of Jeri Ryan. A representation other than that may take place in the mind of a beholder, or purchaser, but that has nothing to do with the representations made in the ad.
The makers of the ad have no control over what representions another party may make.
Furthermore, there is some subjectivity in various representations about the ad's images. Some who have watched Star Trek Voyager may represent that the image is of Jeri Ryan. Some who have ever seen the series may represent that the image "sort of" looks like Jeri Ryan. While someone in a culture where blond women are rare may represent that the image is of a US Embassy secretary they saw crossing the street the other day. Representations are very subjective things, which is why lawyers always translate assertions people make into "representations."
I represent that the problems we have been having on this thread is due to the fact that some people have been using photographs for which they had no license, while also representing that the images they've made are those of a named celebrity. The ads do not do either of those things. So what the ads are doing, and what has been done on this thread, are two different things.
I do not have a problem with what the ads are doing, except that the buyer of one of those images may be the one who runs into trouble if he or she uses it in such a way as to represent who the image is susposed to be.
"You come in here with a head full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer."
Professor Kingsfield, The Paper Chase (1973)
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". - Henry VI (Act IV, Scene II)