Template talk:Mugshot

Mugshots are PD

Mugshots are free per the legal citations here.

The template currently attempts to justify the claim that a "mugshot may still be protected by copyright" by citing Times Picayune. HOWEVER, that case says approximately nil about copyright. The word 'copyright' does not appear in the court decision. It is at odds with what the template asserts is true; the court ruling states that you do NOT have the right to obtain a copy of the mugshot from the Gov't, but that if you manage to get it, you CAN publish it. (See commented out excerpts here for precise wording & exceptions.) We have a template that makes valid, and important points about BLP and privacy, but its claims regarding copyright are backed by no citations, and are contrary to the Constitution's Copyright Clause itself, and contrary to the case law (e.g. Feist, etc) here which I have referred to: "[W]hen the authors in question are legally obligated to perform their creative effort, the Patents and Copyright Clause does not authorize a copyright. This is exactly the situation that exists for the work product of public officials. As long as they are not acting ultra vires, they are performing public duties when collecting and as- sembling information. Even if some of their selection and arrangement would seem to qualify under the Feist originality test, the creative component of their selection and arrangement does not stem from the economic incentive provided by the copyright law because it is legally mandated and therefore fails to qualify under Feist. Whenever a public duty is the cause of the expression, the incentive justification under the copyrights and patent laws is absent, and any construction of the Copyright Act to protect such official work product would be unconstitutional." - Henry H. Perritt, Jr., JD -- see "SOURCES OF RIGHTS TO ACCESS PUBLIC INFORMATION"

I plan to edit this template accordingly. If there's a RS to support the claim that a "mugshot may still be protected by copyright," then some balanced representation of both, per NPOV and UNDUE, but ATM, I don't see one. --Elvey (talk) 00:11, 23 May 2013 (UTC)