The company behind Trump Watches prominently features an iconic image of the presidential candidate on its timepieces. There’s one big problem: It’s not allowed to.
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According to the Associated Press, though, TheBestWatchesonEarth LLC advertised a product it can’t deliver, as that image is owned by the 178-year-old news agency. This week, the AP told WIRED it is pursuing a cease and desist against the LLC, which is registered in Sheridan, Wyoming. (The company did not reply to a request for comment about the cease and desist letter.)
Evan Vucci, the AP’s Pulitzer Prize–winning chief photographer, took that photograph, and while he told WIRED he does not own the rights to that image, the AP confirmed earlier this month in an email to WIRED that it is filing the written notice. “AP is proud of Evan Vucci’s photo and recognizes its impact,” wrote AP spokesperson Nicole Meir. “We reserve our rights to this powerful image, as we do with all AP journalism, and continue to license it for editorial use only.”
Without copyright, the artist would be unemployed. Because the corporation he now works for could just take his photos without paying him.
Copyright protects his livelihood. And THAT is one massive reason why copyright is necessary.
Correct. There are major flaws and rampant abuse; it truly needs reform. But it absolutely needs to exist and benefit those that create.
Its kind of weird for them to take the fascist thief’s side in pretty much anything
Many corporations force you to sign away your work when working for them, so what you describe is already happening.
“When working for them” means “when they pay you”. The point is that the corporation must financially compensate the artist. That’s how copyright makes art into a livelihood.
Without copyright, corporations can use art without ever paying the artist at all.