Re: Rights in real characters

I think what is happening here is th confusion of three types of legal protection: copyright, privacy, and libel.

Copyright: Since the words of the president were used with attribution via the image I suppose a case might be made that this equivalent to quoting in print.

Privacy: Since the speech was public there was no invasion of privacy. Also, as previously stated by others, since there was no commerical use, there is no improper use of the persona.

Libel: This would seem the most probable cause of action - since attitudes and thoughts are attributed to the president which may or may not necessarily reflect his thinking. However, this is where public figures have less protection than rest of us --- and parody more possible.

Shelly Warwick
swarwick[_at_]way.com Received on Mon Aug 04 1997 - 17:00:02 GMT