Using images of artists, influencers, KOLs, or KOCs to advertise businesses, products, and concerts… is always an effective marketing strategy, helping to attract consumers’ attention. For example, a few years ago, when the song “Lac Troi” was released, Son Tung M-TP’s influence helped the national footwear brand Biti’s go upstream and become successful again when at that time, Biti’s Hunter shoe line was almost sold out everywhere. However, nowadays it is not difficult to see images of artists or celebrities in general everywhere. Therefore, how many of those stores have the right to use personal images for advertising?
1. Legal regulations on personal images
In current Vietnamese legal regulations, there is no concept of “personal image copyright”. Instead, the concept of “copyright” or in strictly legal terms “copyright” is a category of intellectual property rights defined in Article 4 of the Intellectual Property Law: “Copyright is the rights of organizations and individuals to the works they create or own.” And “work” here is also defined as “creative products in the fields of literature, art, and science expressed in any medium or form”.
As for an individual’s image, the correct legal term would be the individual’s rights to the image. Clause 1, Article 32 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates the rights of individuals to images, accordingly:
- Use of an individual’s image must be approved by that person.
- If using another person’s image for commercial purposes, compensation must be paid to the person with the image, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.
In addition to using images of celebrities to advertise brands, advertising products related to the use of personal images is often done through the following forms: photos, and advertising films. advertisements, etc. These products are also audio recordings, video recordings, photographic works, or works of applied art…. Subjects protected by copyright and rights related to copyright according to the provisions of intellectual property law.
According to the current Intellectual Property Law, the owners of audio recordings, video recordings, photographic works, and fine arts applied for advertising mentioned above can be the direct creators of the works, or organizations and individuals who make financial investments in the creation or other organizations and individuals whose rights are transferred. Other organizations and individuals when exploiting and using the above works, depending on the subject, will have to ask for permission and pay compensation (for works of photography and applied art) or not have to ask for permission but must pay royalties and remuneration as agreed to the owner or author (for audio and video recordings that have been published).
2. Some issues related to personal image rights
- Images of celebrities are easily obtained in the media, so are these images comfortable to use?
Current laws protect the image rights of individuals in general and celebrities in particular. Therefore, using personal images for commercial purposes without the consent of the individual possessing the image is a violation of the law (except in certain cases).
Using images of famous people to promote one’s brand or product without the consent of the person may be subject to an administrative fine of from 20,000,000 VND to 40,000,000 VND according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 34 Decree 38/2021/ND-CP stipulating penalties for administrative violations in the field of culture and advertising promulgates handling of violations of regulations on prohibited acts in advertising activities. Or the person with the image may request the Court to issue a decision forcing the violator to recall, destroy, stop using the image, pay compensation for damages, and apply other handling measures according to regulations. under the law.
- If brands use images of famous people published publicly in newspapers or news sites, is that a copyright violation?
Before determining whether this behavior violates copyright, it is necessary to consider whether those news sites and newspapers have had an agreement to buy the copyright of that celebrity’s image. If there is a copyright agreement, then the mentioned news sites or newspapers already have property rights to the above images.
Therefore, if any individual or organization uses that image for commercial purposes without the permission of that news site or newspaper, it is a violation of the law. News sites or newspapers have the right to request infringing individuals and organizations to immediately stop using illegal images, and force individuals and organizations to compensate for damages.
If in the case of news sites or newspapers that do not have an agreement on the copyright of the image of the person with the photo, individuals, and organizations, with the consent of the person with the image, still have the right to use the image without permission need to be responsible for the above-mentioned news sites or newspapers.
3. Conclusion
In fact, in Vietnam, famous people often maintain a peaceful attitude when their images are arbitrarily used when these activities do not affect their honor and dignity, so there are very few sanction cases related to the infringement of personal images. However, with the development of social media, taking advantage of celebrities’ images is bringing more economic benefits than ever.
In cases where personal images are used inappropriately, celebrities may suffer reputational damage and reduce copyright licensing revenue, especially when those individuals’ images are associated with products that do not meet standards or are not suitable.
Personal image is the content of moral rights attached to an individual, it is also considered one of a person’s personal information. Therefore, any act of using or distributing other people’s images must be considered very carefully to avoid violating the personal rights of others and being subject to legal sanctions the law.
Above is the article: “Using artist images without permission and copyright issues”. Hope this article will help you.
