Re: Rights in real characters

John R. Allison <allisonj[_at_]mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> Although the law pertaining to [right of publicity] certainly may
> vary among states, does it not apply only when the plaintiff's name,
> likeness, voice, or other aspect of his or her identity has commercial
> value to the plaintiff himself (a value which is appropriated for
> commercial gain by the defendant)?

My understanding is that the law of right of publicity proceeds from the assumption that EVERYONE's persona has commercial value to that person, whether that value is exploited by the individual or not. This is why RoP is not limited to celebrities. The question whether the individual has actually exploited that persona commercially during his/her lifetime goes only to the issue of whether the RoP is descendable to the person's heirs, NOT to the question of whether the person has commercially valuable RoP in the first place.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Fri Aug 08 1997 - 16:16:39 GMT