News & Commentary

Student-Athletes File Appeal in Marshall v. ESPN

October 15, 2015 10:45 am PT

The student-athlete plaintiffs in Marshall have filed their opening brief in their appeal to the Sixth Circuit. The Tennessee district court had earlier rejected the claim that television broadcasts of collegiate games violated the players’ rights of publicity under Tennessee law....

EA Files Cert. Petition in Davis v. Electronic Arts

October 6, 2015 7:45 pm PT

On Monday, EA filed a Petition seeking Supreme Court review in Davis v. Electronic Arts, 775 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir. 2015). The video game maker asks the Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit and hold that the use of realistic depictions of people in expressive works, including video games,...

Decision in O'Bannon v. NCAA Provides Right of Publicity Edge to the NCAA

October 5, 2015 12:15 pm PT

The Ninth Circuit’s decision last week upholding the application of antitrust laws to the NCAA, has several implications for student-athletes and their rights of publicity. The appellate court’s holding that the NCAA could retain its rules requiring students to remain amateur means that...

Character in WOLF OF WALL STREET Does Not Violate Real Person's Publicity Rights

October 5, 2015 12:00 pm PT

On September 30, 2015, a federal district court in New York dismissed a right of publicity claim brought by former Stratton Oakmont employee, Andrew Greene. Greene was featured in convicted felon Jordan Belfort's memoir upon which the Martin Scorsese movie was based. The movie, however, did...

Aretha Franklin Gets Documentary Film Pulled from Film Festivals

September 18, 2015 12:15 pm PT

A lawsuit filed by famous recording artist, Aretha Franklin, against a documentary filmmaker, Allan Elliott, led to the pulling of his documentary film, “Amazing Grace,” from the line-ups at numerous prestigious film festivals, including Telluride and Toronto. Ms. Franklin claims that the...

Alabama's New Right of Publicity Statute Goes Into Effect and Threatens Free Speech

August 1, 2015 10:15 pm PT

Alabama's Right of Publicity Act went into effect on August 1, 2015. It is not yet clear what effect the law will have on the common law rights in the state. Of most concern is the expansive language of the statute which includes both for-profit and non-profit uses of any indicia of...

Artwork sold by Target to celebrate the civil rights movement is itself a target – of a right of publicity claim by Rosa Parks’ estate.

July 16, 2015 11:30 pm PT

A case filed in Alabama, but decided by the district court under Michigan law, where Ms. Parks died, claims that Target’s celebratory plaques that include Parks’ image, as well as that of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. may infringe Rosa Park’s right of publicity. The district court held that the...

Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing in Davis v. Electronic Arts

July 14, 2015 9:15 pm PT

The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing in its controversial decision in Davis v. Electronic Arts that the use of real professional athletes identities in a video game was not protected by the First Amendment. This decision leaves at risk numerous expressive and nonfiction works that include...

Federal Court in Tennessee rejects student-athletes' right of publicity claim against ESPN for game broadcasts

June 8, 2015 10:00 am PT

In June of 2015, a district court in Tennessee rejected a class action claim by student-athletes that their rights of publicity were being violated by the broadcast of collegiate games. The court held that the use of their names and likenesses in the context of the broadcasts was outside the...

New York Introduces Post-Mortem Right Of Publicity Bill

June 1, 2015 3:00 pm PT

In May of 2015, the New York Assembly and Senate both introduced bills that would add a post-mortem right of publicity to New York’s law. The proposed term would be seventy years. The bill provides a number of enumerated exceptions for expressive works, but it is still hotly contested....

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The Book

THE RIGHT OF PUBLICITY: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World

This book from Harvard University Press by Professor Jennifer Rothman traces the history and development of the right of publicity and its current collision course with individual liberty, free speech and copyright law.

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