A current Republican advertisement violates copyright law by making unauthorized use of a published photo of Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, according to a complaint by the photographer who took the original photo.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/images_2010/Hanabusa_RNC.jpg)
![[text]](http://ilind.net/images_2010/Hanabusa_Fergerstrom.jpg)
Blaine Fergerstrom, former Star-Bulletin webmaster, took the 2008 photo while on the staff of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It was originally published in the OHA newspaper Ka Wai Ola.
The complaint comes just days after a similar complaint from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, which says one of its copyrighted photos was altered and used without permission.
In an email to the Republican National Committee on Wednesday, Fergerstrom wrote:
“No one ever sought permission to use my photo of Hanabusa, and I would not have given my permission for such a use as your derogatory commercial, compensated or not.”
Fergerstrom said the advertisement was taken down by YouTube as a result of his complaint, but he has not received a response from the RNC.
Here’s Fergerstrom’s email:
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:42:10 -1000
To: info@gop.com
From: Blaine Fergerstrom
Subject: Unauthorized use of my photo in campaign commercialAttention Republican National Committee:
You are currently running advertising in the state of Hawaii, and repeating that advertising on YouTube.com — which conveniently misappropriates my photograph of Hawaii State Senator Colleen Hanabusa.
No one ever sought permission to use my photo of Hanabusa, and I would not have given my permission for such a use as your derogatory commercial, compensated or not.
You are entitled to your views, and you are entitled to broadcast them, but you are not entitled to steal my work.
Please cease and desist in this unauthorized copyright infringement of my photo. (See the attached screen shot pointing to the specific infringing photo used in your video, as well as separate screen shot of my full-frame original photo.)
This is NOT in any way fair use. I have submitted a complaint to YouTube.com detailing the infringement and asking for removal from YouTube.
Please respond receipt of my email complaint and signify compliance with my request.
Thank you,
Blaine Fergerstrom
October 20, 2010
Honolulu, Hawaii
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no surprise….Repubs ignore inconvenient laws all the time. Laws are only for the little people
If it is an OHA photo it is public property and is therefore not subject to copyright restrictions.
Does Blaine even work for OHA anymore? How does he retain to rights of a photo that ran in their newsletter? Wouldn’t this photo be public property since OHA is a state agency? Shouldn’t OHA be the ones bringing forth the complaint? I wonder why they have not.
It’s not necessarily an OHA photo. It’s a Blaine Fergerstrom photo that was permitted to be used by OHA. It didn’t necessarily run in the print edition, either. I often added photos from my own collection to fatten up the stories in the online edition of Ka Wai Ola.
I have no idea what the Republican ad is all about. But this is an interesting topic. The photo is part of a government publication and is part and parcel to the Senator’s advocacy of a position on the Con Con.
This appears to be government action. Seems like there could be some circumstances that would warrant a reproduction without permission of the photographer. I am not up to speed on the fair use doctrine. But I would be interesting in reading more discussion on this.
That may or may not be true, but it’s missing the point entirely. Without the slightest care or concern, the national Republicans appropriated a photo to which they had no right, legal or ethical. At least, as far as I can tell, they didn’t compound the felony by retouching this one to make Colleen look evil as they did to a Star-Advertiser photo … and that one was without question used illegally. Bottom line: the arrogant b—–ds do not care.