When Can A Person's Image Be Depicted On A Stamp?

There was some mention in the definitives thread regarding
the executors of the Einstein estate not allowing German Post to depict his image
on a German stamp.

Probably most of us have heard of the German Audrey Hepburn
stamps which had to be destroyed because her son objected to
a particular image of her being used.

Also mentioned somewhere was the the fact that Hitler was receiving
royalties for the use of his stamps.

At what point (years ?) could an image be used regardless of
the objections of the descendants or estates ?

What about current political leaders ? I see Obama's image on
a lot of countries' stamps already. Did they all get permission ?
Did they even ask ?


At what point is the image of a " famous " or "infamous" in
the public domain?

There might be two questions there. (Maybe more.) The "image" may not be in the public domain until the copyright expires. Then there is the person's/estate's right of publicity. Both of these probably vary around the world, with some places probably not recognizing a right of publicity at all.

No answers...just muddying up the question.

An interesting question and, at least internationally, the answer may vary from country to country, depending on their laws.

As far as the recent announcement by the US Postal Service about putting living people on stamps, and given the litigious society in which we live, I would imagine that there would be a specific written legal agreement in place before the issuance of any such stamp.

Actually, the US Postal Service has been in litigation before as it relates to US Postage Stamps, not necessarily depicting one's image, but using a copyrighted image created by another, as in the 37-cent Korean War Memorial Stamp. In this case, the USPS paid a $5000 royalty to the owner of the image used. Here's the court case, if you want the read the "legalese":

http://www.oblon.com/sites/default/...20States.pdf

Just posted this in the Albert Einstein thread

100 years of relativity - atoms - quantum - Albert Einstein, portrait of Albert Einstein's formula E = mc².





This stamp was issued by Deutsche Post AG on behalf of the Federal Ministry of finance and is an official workaccording to § 5 ABS. 1 UrhG. According to the German copyright law is thus it domain:

German postage stamps are in the public domain as official work according to § 5 ABS. 1 UrhG and can be mapped. Stamps of private provider (other than Deutsche Post AG) are official works and are therefore the property rights of their authors.

Please note:
A valid German stamps is allowed only in escaped form (stamped or for example with a corner oblique black bar on).
As for details of the stamp design, but the copyright of graphic artist can access stamps only complete may be shown. The stamps motive is not in the public domain, where the graphic designer has died at least 70 years before 1 January of this year.