Comments on: The Right of Publicity: A Doctrine Gone Wild?

By: Mahdi Schindelheim

Mahdi Schindelheim — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:37:27 +0000

Hello Andrew – I am not sure how often you look at these comments. However I have a quandary.

If you did a TV show – sell DVDs – offer- Pay per View – on Demand – Memberships – and in this show you did funny impersonations of celebrities that made fun of shows they have done – like the Dan Aykroyd / Julia Child bit on SNL.

Is this legal? What is the liability…if any?

Thanks

By: Mark Nowotarski

Mark Nowotarski — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:52:04 +0000

Interesting. Now I have to update my “basic IP rights” powerpoint slide.

I wonder if there is an application to a common person. Consider “spoofing”, where a bot takes over your computer and sends out spam to everyone on your address list as if it was from you.

Does a right of publicity exist here?

How famous is famous? Am I “famous” to my facebook friends? My twitter followers? My blog readers?

By: EG

EG — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:58:10 +0000

Andrew,

Good article. As you likely know, we have a statutory right of publicity in Ohio that is applicable to all, not just celebrities. Of course, if you aren’t a celebrity, you likely not recover much in terms of damages.

By: Nils Montan

Nils Montan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:57:36 +0000

I agree with your comments Andrew, although in this case I think we have a situation of a “girl gone wild” rather than a doctrine gone wild. The right of publicity has its place, but this is a lousy case – which can make bad law. I totally agree with you that the right has to be limited and I also agree that a true “dilution” case should be won by a plaintiff only in some pretty rare instances.

Thanks for the great post.

Nils