Toy company makes request after altered images – which hide suspects’ identities in line with state law – go viral
A southern California police department has been handcuffed by Lego after the toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in images it shares on social media.
The Murrieta police department has been using Lego heads and emojis to cover people’s faces in posts on social sites since at least early 2023. But the altered photos went viral last week after the department posted a statement about its policy, prompting several news articles and, later, the request from Lego.
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Murrieta police had an internal discussion about posting photos of arrestees in general and announced a new department policy on Instagram in January 2023. The community had requested more of their “weekly roundup” posts, so the department said it started using the Lego heads and emojis to comply with the law while still engaging with Murrieta residents.
What law are they breaking?
Intellectual Property laws as they did not (presumably) license the likeness from Lego.
Same reason you can’t put Mario’s face over them. Nintendo will come down on them with the force of a thousand suns.
I think that for copyright you could argue that its for a transformative artistic purpose, and seeing as it doesn’t supplant legos in the market, I don’t think its clear-cut in either way.
I’m not a lawyer but clearly a civil case could be made.