Harry Potter Stamps

[jkle...@gmail.com]

I've been buying the Harry Potter stamps, because every once in a while it's fun to attach a picture of Harry Potter casting what's probably a dangerous spell, or a scowling picture of Snape to a letter to someone I don't particularly like - usually someone I have to send money to!

But I thought US stamps weren't allowed to feature pictures of anyone living, and most if not all of these actors are living. Is it allowed because they're playing characters? Kind of weird, because most of them just look like pictures of kids who go to a private school.

I remember there were people tying to get a stamp honoring Rod Serling issued. I thought it was a good idea, and feel he should have a stamp before all these stamps featuring living child actors.

Also, did the USPS have to license those images from the movie studio or whoever owns the rights to the images? That's kind of weird too, if the US government licensed Harry Potter images.

[Adam H. Kerman]

jkle...@gmail.com wrote:

>I've been buying the Harry Potter stamps, because every once in a while
>it's fun to attach a picture of Harry Potter casting what's probably a
>dangerous spell, or a scowling picture of Snape to a letter to someone I
>don't particularly like - usually someone I have to send money to!

>But I thought US stamps weren't allowed to feature pictures of anyone
>living, and most if not all of these actors are living. Is it allowed
>because they're playing characters? Kind of weird, because most of them
>just look like pictures of kids who go to a private school.

The stamp depicts the character, not the actor.

>I remember there were people tying to get a stamp honoring Rod Serling
>issued. I thought it was a good idea, and feel he should have a stamp
>before all these stamps featuring living child actors.

>Also, did the USPS have to license those images from the movie studio or
>whoever owns the rights to the images? That's kind of weird too, if the
>US government licensed Harry Potter images.

They're licensed, yes.

[jkle...@gmail.com]

On Friday, December 18, 2015 at 3:54:33 PM UTC-5, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

> The stamp depicts the character, not the actor.

So they could theoretically print a US postage stamp of ANY actor if the image was of them acting. They could issue a Donald Trump stamp now, with a photo of Donald Trump in one of his TV shows. Maybe a better example is they could have printed a Ronald Reagan stamp when Reagan was still alive, if the photo was from one of his movies.

> They're licensed, yes.

I'd be interested to know how they chose to honor the Harry Potter characters this way. It just seems a strange choice. Not unprecedented, I know they've issues Star Wars stamps, and some other movie related ones.

[Adam H. Kerman]

jkle...@gmail.com wrote:
>On Friday, December 18, 2015 at 3:54:33 PM UTC-5, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>>The stamp depicts the character, not the actor.

>So they could theoretically print a US postage stamp of ANY actor if the
>image was of them acting.

You're going out of your way to misunderstand what I told you. It's
against the law to portray a living actor, period, even an actor in costume.
The stamp would depict Harry Potter, not Daniel Radcliffe in character as
Harry Potter. Obviously, Radcliffe was made up to resemble the character
as described in the novels and as illustrated, not the other way 'round.

>They could issue a Donald Trump stamp now, with a photo of Donald Trump
>in one of his TV shows. Maybe a better example is they could have printed
>a Ronald Reagan stamp when Reagan was still alive, if the photo was from
>one of his movies.

Donald Trump isn't an actor playing a character, so obviously not.

>>They're licensed, yes.

>I'd be interested to know how they chose to honor the Harry Potter
>characters this way. It just seems a strange choice. Not unprecedented,
>I know they've issues Star Wars stamps, and some other movie related
>ones.

Somebody high up in marketing thinks they'll sell. I have no idea if
they do any testing; it seems unlikely. They paid a fortune to license
The Simpsons a couple of years ago and got stuck with an enormous print
run. This Christmas, they've been pushing Charlie Brown characters.

[jkle...@gmail.com]

Let's say there was a single stamp issued that was a close up of William Shatner's face. How would anyone know if it was a William Shatner stamp or a Star Trek stamp? It could also be a TJ Hooker stamp. It just seems weird to cross that line. Look, it's an Alan Rickman stamp! They don't say Harry Potter anywhere on them.