The Meshugana Mug Shot Megillah Pt.2: Trump’s grift off mug shot may violate U.S. copyright laws

 

Above and below are renditions of the Trump mug shot which I created using BeFunky.

Click above to enlarge

Read on single page here.

Here's a continuation of my previous Trump mug shot story. For a story about a picture of a head it sure has legs. 

I address what Dean Obeidallah wrote in the opinion piece below about the chance that the Fulton County Sheriff's Dept. could sue Trump for copyright infringement because of his making money off the use of his mug shot.

Click above to read article which is
 is by Dean Obeidallah who is a lawyer, radio host,
and comedian.

Read my first blog about the mug shot here.

Note: I am not a lawyer, I'm a retired psychotherapist, so any legal opinions here are based on my impression of the law. 

There are three short videos in this blog which I suggest you play.

Trump is notorious for playing music from artists who haven't given him permission to do so. In fact in 2020 22 musicians expressed their desire to have him stop using their musics at events.

Now he is making money off of a law enforcement agency booking photo, aka a mug shot, taken by a sheriff's department. For someone who claims he never heard the term "mug shot" because they never taught about it at Wharton he seems to have learned quickly the economics related to having had one taken of him.

Trump does have a feral instinctual intelligence for figuring out the best way to appeal to his cult. Showman that he is he made the best of the moment as the photographer snapped the shutter when he was being booked. You can't ask for a second chance the way you can when you get your drivers license photo taken. He gave good glower. You can almost hear him growling. Or maybe it's supposed to be a snarl. 

It's  not the MGM lion's roar.

Click above to play

I am sure if he could he would have had a video version of a mug shot where he could roar like the MGM lion or the Tarzan King of the Jungle he fancies himself to be. 

Click above to play

I assume he wants you to hear him vocalizing something as menacing a a wolf warning you of imminent attack:

Click above to play

I rather doubt Dean Obeidallah's pointing out that the Fulton County Sheriff's Department has a reasonable case for initiating a civil suit for monetary compensation for Trump's use of thier mug shot will amount to anything. 

The question of the legality of using the mug shot to make money was address on August 25th in a Spectrum News 1 article by Taylor Bruck here. Like me, she's not a lawyer, but she has done considerable research on this subject. (About her)

Here's an excerpt citing what Betsy Rosenblatt, a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, said:

“You're prohibited from using it for a number of things without authorization,” Rosenblatt said. “You’re prohibited from reproducing it, making a derivative work of it, distributing it without authorization, or that is to say distributing anything that isn't the one copy you already lawfully have, and various other things. Making a public display of it, making a public performance of it, which opens up all kinds of fascinating possibilities here.” 

So will the potentially thousands of people who are already using the mugshot to make a profit get in trouble? 

Rosenblatt said in order to pursue a claim for copyright infringement, the owner of the copyright, who she said is likely the Fulton County Sheriff's Department, would have to be the one to sue. 

“Whether the Fulton County Sheriff's Department would decide to enforce its copyright is entirely up to them,” Rosenblatt said. “But it's also reasonable to think that the Fulton County Sheriff's Office might think, you know, this is a public document, it belongs to the world in a way, [the] copyright belongs to us. But the news about it belongs to the world. And we're not going to undertake the expense and trouble of hiring copyright counsel and sending out takedowns and cease and desist and letters, or in lawsuits.”

Can you legally use Trump’s mugshot on merchandise? Can you legally use Trump’s mugshot on merchandise? 2

Can you legally use Trump’s mugshot on merchandisWWWhile winning presumably would provide the county with much needed funds for jail renovation taking the case to court would require money, obviously with no guarantee they'd prevail in court. 

It would also take a long time to resolve. The best they could hope for might be a cease and desist order to force Trump to stop the mug shot grift. It might even be possible for a judge to order all American companies involved in selling mug shot merch to stop doing so. 

There would be a drawback to a judge ordering a cease and desist in that the more Trump makes from sales of mug shot merch the more money there would be if the sheriff's department ultimately wins.

While I'm not a lawyer my impression is that all things considered in Georgia the powers that be won't bother with a civil suit about Trump grifting off of the mug shot. 

Update: Jonathan Capehart interviewed his Aunt Gloria this morning about how Trump is supposedly gaining street creds with Black voters here.

Of course Jessie Watters above, is an expert on what Black convicted of felonies think about white colar criminals.

Addendum: Here's another mug shot version I made simply by darkening the original:

Being up between 1-4 AM and raging on social media 19 times isn't normal

  

My composite illustration

Read blog on single page here.

Click above to read article about Trump's Thursday night posting rant

By sheer chance as I write this there's a commercial for a new insomnia medication on TV.

From my perspective as a therapist I have written a lot on my blog  about Trump's mental health and the indications this is deteriorating. Some of what I and many others in my profession have observed there are signs he is moving towards having a psychotic episode. We can only make an educated guess about this. However, there is one thing we know for sure. Even if we ingore the content of what he posts on his personal megaphone, sometimes turned up in "volume" with all caps and manifesting projection and denial, and using words of rage, it is that he is up in the wee hours of the morning. 

Not only is he awake, he's wide awake enough to be on his Truth Social platform, he's looking for videos (like the one from a Mark Levin interview referenced below) to re-post, and he's expressing anger.

For example from the Raw Story article: 

"I am being 'railroaded' by a highly partisan and corrupt system of INJUSTICE, headed up by an opponent who is losing in the polls and, simultaneously with all of this, destroying our once Great Country! This Mark Levin interview is a MUST WATCH!" he wrote at approximately 3 am.

He then ranted, "Keep Indicting your Political Opponent, it makes no difference for what, or why. Keep him off the 'campaign trail' and in the courthouse instead. Don’t think of his Rights, the Constitution, or Liberty. Sit back and WATCH AMERICA CRUMBLE!"

Here's another article:

Click above to read

This is from The Sleep Institute website:

Click above to read

The following is what the institute has to say about stress and insomnia:

Stress can provoke a profound reaction in the body that poses a challenge to quality sleep. This stress response can come from work, school, and social relationships. Exposure to traumatic situations can create chronic stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The body’s physical response to stress contributes to hyperarousal, and mental stress can have the same effect. The inability to sleep may itself become a source of stress, making it increasingly harder to break the cycle of stress and insomnia.

Researchers believe that some individuals are more vulnerable to stress-induced sleeping problems. These people are considered to have high “sleep reactivity,”  Trusted SourceNational Library of Medicine, Biotech InformationThe National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.View Source which is tied to other issues affecting their sleep and their physical and mental health.

Obviously it is not normal to regularly be awake and expressing your anger between 1-4AM. It is frequently a sign a person is under extreme stress. People cannot function normally during the day if they don't get enough sleep. Their cognition and hence their ability to make rational decisions is often impaired. As Trump faces legal jeopardy this can only help the prosecution.

Here's a dated but related article:

Trump's ALL-CAPS RANT Is The Fourth Of July Hangover That Will Pound Your Brain

The former president weaponized the Caps Lock button in a screed against everything.

Former President Donald Trump’s ALL-CAPS RANT on Wednesday was as overdone as Fourth of July hot dogs left on the grill.

The 2024 Republican candidate for president pressed the Caps Lock key by the dawn’s early light and spewed false claims and fiery rhetoric.

“MASSIVE PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT IS CURRENTLY TAKING PLACE IN AMERICA. THE WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “CRIME & INFLATION ARE RAMPANT, OUR BORDERS ARE OPEN, OUR ELECTIONS ARE RIGGED, OUR ECONOMY IS IN SHAMBLES, OUR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE IS GONE, OUR “LEADER” IS MERCILESSLY MOCKED, & OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED BOTH INSIDE & OUT. DO THE PEOPLE OF THIS ONCE GREAT NATION EVEN HAVE A CHOICE BUT TO PROTEST THE POTENTIAL DOOM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA??? 2024!!!”

The HUFFPOST article included a tweet from Republican Accountability:

They tweeted:

At this point, if he wants to emphasize a word he should put it in *lowercase*

This made me think of e.e. cummings whose poems mostly were written in lower case and bent the rules of punctuation. I know, putting Trump and e.e. cummings together is like comparing primroses to poison ivy.

For those of you who read the Trump posts so far, here are a couple of what are considered two of e.e. cummings best poems which you can read to restore your equanimity.

"I carry your heart with me" and "in just" below:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and             wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles
far
and
wee

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