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Who Owns Your Mug Shot?

By Bruce Carton

In July 2005, Patrick Tribett of West Virginia was arrested for paint huffing and had his mug shot taken by police. Tribett's photo, which shows his face partially covered with gold spray paint following his huffing, appeared in places like The Smoking Gun, which collect notable mug shots. It immediately became an "iconic mug shot" that gained him "worldwide infamy," TSG writes here (via The Business Insider's Law Review). An entire Tribett mug shot paraphernalia marketplace then developed, with items such as T-shirts and coffee mugs being offered up on Amazon.com, Cafe Press and Hot Toys, a Chinese manufacturer. TSG reports that T-shirts with Tribett's iconic photo (and the phrase "I wanna know where da gold at," a line taken from a different Internet meme) are currently being sold on Zazzle.com for about $20. Tribett, however, says all of this is without his permission, and he has hired an attorney who is reportedly preparing federal lawsuits against the companies selling the merchandise.

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on December 03, 2009 (boomark / email).