If you’ve been running around the book of Faces lately, you’ll see these little advertisements for some sort of government check scam – pay $1.99 or something for a CD that tells you how to get nonexistent government grants. But my question is this: I’ve seen this guy, Jeff Donahue (www. jeffgetsgrants. com) use two little screen captures from Fox News (like this one with a handsome, young Bill O’Reilly, with fake hands pasted over top holding fake checks). Is this fair use? Since I can’t contact Jeff directly – no feedback link on his site, maybe you armchair lawyers can chew on this in comments.
From what I can tell this would probably break Facebook’s advertising terms of service as well. It’s not quite art and it’s not quite commerce. It’s a strange, strange mix of the two.
Fair use is copyright, which is probably the property of Fox (or in general, to whomever happens to be behind the camera unless other arrangements have been made). So Fox may rightly have some issues with that. But the other issue is the “right of publicity” which isn’t copyright but which Papa Bear (baby Papa Bear?) could assert himself. That would be the more proper claim in this case, and I think Bill would probably win on that one.
http://www.publaw.com/rightpriv.html
Interesting topic about fair use in facebook ads. I figure over time they will find the sweet spot and block everything that goes past the line. Much like google adwords — remember the good ol days when you advertise almost anything, now – your lucky if you legitimate site doesnt get banned from adwords… :(
follow all things facebook ads at adsonfacebook.wordpress.com