California Celebrities Rights Act

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The Celebrities Rights Act or Celebrity Rights Act was passed in California in 1985 and it extended the personality rights for a celebrity to 70 years after his or her death. Previously, the 1979 Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs, as a copyright would have. The court ruled that any rights of publicity, and rights to his image, terminated with Lugosi's death.

Civil Code section 3344 is for the publicity rights of living persons, while Civil Code section 3344.1, known as the "Astaire Celebrity Image Protection Act," grants statutory post-mortem rights which prohibit the unsanctioned use of the "name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness on or in products, merchandise or goods" of any person. Similar laws have been enacted by 12 other states in the United States. [1].

Among the uses exempt from the Astaire act:

“

a play, book, magazine, newspaper, musical composition, audiovisual work, radio or television program, single and original work of art, work of political or newsworthy value, or an advertisement or commercial announcement for any of these works, shall not be considered a product, article of merchandise, good, or service if it is fictional or nonfictional entertainment, or a dramatic, literary, or musical work.

”

The largest personality rights licensing agency is The Roger Richman Agency, which is owned by Corbis.

[edit] Cases

1998 Princess Diana's estate sued the Franklin Mint for selling products bearing her likeness. The lawsuit filed May 18, 1998 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles said the Franklin Mint "failed to obtain consent to use Princess Diana's identity and trademark ... and embarked on a campaign to profit from Princess Diana's death."

[edit] Reference

Peter L. Felcher, and Edward L. Rubin; The Descendibility of the Right of Publicity: Is There Commercial Life after Death? The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 89, No. 6 (May, 1980), pp. 1125-1132