RE: Celebrity Gifs

From: Buford Terrell <terrell[_at_]gateway.stcl.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 14:04:41 -0500

Bob Cumbow <cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> wrote:
>
> Andrew Friedman wrote:

>> 
>> what action could Cindy Crawford take if a photograph of her is 
>> digitally altered or combined with a nude photograph of another 
>> women so that it appears to be Cindy's nude body.  I imagine 
>> rights of privacy and or publicity are implicated and wonder if 
>> the online service would be liable in any way

>
> Since CC has already posed nude, it is hard to imagine a right of
> privacy violation. If the use were not commercial, there could be
> no right of publicity claim. But this is an intriguing question
> irrespective of whether the person whose face is used is a celebrity
> or not. Depending on what body it is grafted onto, and what that
> body is doing, there might be a cause of action for defamation. Can
> a purely visual image, without words, be defamatory if it purports
> to show an identifiable person doing something that she in fact has
> not done?

Wasn't there a case a few years back brought by a beauty contest winner against a magazine (I think Penthouse or Hustler) for defamation when her photo was altered and used as both the before and after shots in a diet ad parody?

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Buford C. Terrell                       1303 San Jacinto Street
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Received on Tue Sep 17 1996 - 19:45:30 GMT