Anaconda Vice Posted July 30, 2022 Share Posted July 30, 2022 Hello, What is the legal standpoint on downloading facepacks? Can you be prosecuted for it with regards to copyright? Or is it ok for personal use? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashidi Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 I am not a legal expert, but the usage of some players images can be seen as an infringement. Some clubs, media companies and players own the rights to use player images. These faces can’t be reproduced digitally or used as a image for profit or personal use. Whether the image right holders want to pursue infringements is up to them. Once again I could be wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentonizking Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Fair usage bro Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
phd_angel Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 Great question! I checked around and have some notes on the topic. * Short answer, in a nutshell: Although a lawyer will have to officially say that you need permission to use logos and face packs, if you are not exploiting these images commercially, using it for private use, and not causing a clear commercial harm to clubs or players, then you should not worry about using these packs. * Long answer, as I typed vicariously: First of all, as lawyers in America tell me, nothing is set in stone. Everything is open to interpretation. This is why there are courts, and decisions often go in unexpected ways and flop after a while. They say: "In America, everybody is free to sue anyone they want for whatever reason..." Having said that, all lawyers specializing in Intellectual Property will invariably have to say that you always need to get permission to use any trade marks, and even copy rights. This would include logos, crests, and even contracted players' images. However, unless there is a clear commercial interest or loss involved, chances of being legally sued are negligible. A club may sue a manufacturer using its crest on a product. And yet, clubs also want free publicity (aka "earned media"), so they often let TV or streaming companies to use their logos in the shows, because it benefits them commercially. (Again, nothing prevents the mad chairman of some football federation to hire a lawyer to put the fear of god on any unauthorized user: for example, Brazilian Football Federation, Flamengo club. Conversely, NFL - National "Football" League in the US - has a strict trade mark policy but always lets TV channels get away using their names and logos in TV shows without any formal permission being asked...) Millions of fans share images of Messi, CR7 or Neymar on Facebook... I don't recall anyone being sued or asked to delete such posts from Facebook. In sum, see short answer at the top. :-) PS: I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, just some random thoughts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anaconda Vice Posted July 31, 2022 Author Share Posted July 31, 2022 20 minutes ago, phd_angel said: Great question! I checked around and have some notes on the topic. * Short answer, in a nutshell: Although a lawyer will have to officially say that you need permission to use logos and face packs, if you are not exploiting these images commercially, using it for private use, and not causing a clear commercial harm to clubs or players, then you should not worry about using these packs. * Long answer, as I typed vicariously: First of all, as lawyers in America tell me, nothing is set in stone. Everything is open to interpretation. This is why there are courts, and decisions often go in unexpected ways and flop after a while. They say: "In America, everybody is free to sue anyone they want for whatever reason..." Having said that, all lawyers specializing in Intellectual Property will invariably have to say that you always need to get permission to use any trade marks, and even copy rights. This would include logos, crests, and even contracted players' images. However, unless there is a clear commercial interest or loss involved, chances of being legally sued are negligible. A club may sue a manufacturer using its crest on a product. And yet, clubs also want free publicity (aka "earned media"), so they often let TV or streaming companies to use their logos in the shows, because it benefits them commercially. (Again, nothing prevents the mad chairman of some football federation to hire a lawyer to put the fear of god on any unauthorized user: for example, Brazilian Football Federation, Flamengo club. Conversely, NFL - National "Football" League in the US - has a strict trade mark policy but always lets TV channels get away using their names and logos in TV shows without any formal permission being asked...) Millions of fans share images of Messi, CR7 or Neymar on Facebook... I don't recall anyone being sued or asked to delete such posts from Facebook. In sum, see short answer at the top. :-) PS: I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, just some random thoughts. So in actual fact, the police are not the ones who would track you down for downloading it? You would have to use it in a way that a copyright holder deemed against Copyright terms. They would then need to lodge a complaint and it would go through the legal proceedings from there. To use it in a game for personal use, as long as not uploaded anywhere is never going to raise attention or problems? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrazT Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 Given that this practise is used by many thousands of users, It is hard to see how there would be any issues with personal use. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anaconda Vice Posted August 1, 2022 Author Share Posted August 1, 2022 14 minutes ago, FrazT said: Given that this practise is used by many thousands of users, It is hard to see how there would be any issues with personal use. @FrazT I think the only thing that raised concern for me was the Man Utd issue that SI had, apparently this fell over into the facepacks / logopacks as well. Perhaps only a issue for distributors of the packs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal_guitarist Posted August 1, 2022 Share Posted August 1, 2022 Unless you're the one distributing the packs and very loudly advertising it you'll be fine. It'll be the sites hosting them that copyright holders will go after. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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