Why did dad change his Facebook photo to a picture of Paul McCartney? Why is my sister Wednesday Adams? Wait, since when am I friends with Zooey Deschanel?

The Celebrity Doppelganger Week meme started in late January (the actual origin is still up for debate) prompting several thousand Facebook users to change their profile pictures to someone famous (actor, athlete, musician, cartoon character, Muppet) whom they have been told they look like. Sure it’s fun to see who your Facebook friends think they resemble, but there’s a tiny problem with this doppelganger craze: it infringes upon Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS), sort of.

*Jump Down to see 360 PSG’s employee Doppelgangers.

According to Facebook’s policy, users are responsible for the material that they upload to their accounts. If they do not own the rights to the celebrity photos and/or artwork that they publish then technically they’re violating the terms of service.

Of course the argument of fair use could be made since no one participating in the doppelganger meme is trying to make money, but it does raise some interesting questions when pondering just how strict the Facebook TOS are. Where does Facebook start policing its accounts to preserve the rights of the photographers and artists who snapped those celebrity photos?

What is Fair Use?

According to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation):

In essence, fair use is a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright holders. The Copyright Act gives copyright holders the exclusive right to reproduce works for a limited time period. Fair use is a limitation on this right. A use which is considered “fair” does not infringe copyright, even if it involves one of the exclusive rights of copyright holders. Fair use allows consumers to make a copy of part or all of a copyrighted work, even where the copyright holder has not given permission or objects to your use of the work.

Facebook protects its users and artists by removing any harmful content from profiles upon request from copyright holders. In other words, unless Mark Arnold (Mick McAllister from Teen Wolf) takes serious offense to John Morton (Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for Immigration & Customs Enforcement) putting him back on the pop culture map with a Facebook shout out, I don’t think anyone has anything to worry about posting a celebrity photo to their Facebook profile.

Like most internet memes the Doppelganger fad will fade with the emergence of a new trend. Regardless, it’s fun to see how Facebook handles, or ignores, the issue of copyright as they arise.

To keep up with the craze, I asked some coworkers to send me photos of their celebrity doppelgangers. Here are some of the best ones:

Bryan (Bruce Lee)

Nick (Benny from The Sandlot)

Mike (Mr. Potato Head)

Creative Team:

Jeremy (Charlie Korsmo, "the kid from Hook")

Matt (The Fonz)

Martin (Harrison Ford)

Dan (singer Phil Stacey)

Programmers:

Ian (Chris Kattan)

Eric (Geico Caveman)

The Head Hanchos:

Jay (the yellow guy from The Wiggles)

Kristen (Monica Lewinsky)

Ben (Freddie Prinze Jr.)

Joel (John Hodgman, "The PC Guy")

Matt W. (Beaker)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites