Rotherham Man Raking In £500 A Week After Copyrighting His Own Face
2017-01-02
A Bramley man has copyrighted his face and now makes almost £500 a week by issuing invoices to people who unwittingly publish his photograph.
Ian Smith, 45 from Howard Road, now spends his spare time photo-bombing pictures in pubs, restaurants, clubs, cafes and even in the street, before scouring Facebook and other social media for the resulting photos and threatening to sue the poster for copyright infringement. Most pay up straight away – £50 is the usual fee – and those that don’t receive a solicitors letter with additional legal costs attached. “I’ve not had to go to court yet,” he told us “but if I did I’d win. I’ve got it all stitched up.”
Under normal circumstances, it isn’t possible to copyright your own face because it’s a naturally occurring phenomenon with no design or creative input, but Ian is taking advantage of a sneaky loophole in the law. A couple of years ago, he underwent cosmetic surgery on his crooked nose and eye bags, and his face now displays a creative element which can be registered under copyright legislation.
“I’ve got the paperwork and everything” he told us, ” Some people think what I’m doing is underhand, but I don’t care. It certainly beats working for a living. I’m raking it in.”
This legal loophole opens up the way for anyone who’s had cosmetic surgery to copyright their face, and there may even be a way for people who have had no surgery to cash in according to Ian’s lawyers, Pratt Shyster & Butt. “We’re looking at whether simply wearing make up, bespoke glasses or sculpted facial hair is sufficient to legally register copyright of a face,” solicitor Benjamin Butt said “And if it is that could open the legal floodgates for everyone. We’re also looking at whether we can sue companies like Facebook who are profiting commercially from copyrighted faces appearing on their websites. It’s a potential goldmine.”
Ian demanded £50 for us to include a photograph in this article, which is why the picture above shows only the back of his head, which isn’t copyrighted.
