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Sunday, July 13, 2008
Law - Soul singer James Brown and the right of publicity
NPR's Morning Edition last Friday had a fascinating, nearly 6-minute feature on the right of publicity. You may read or listen to it. A quote:
You've likely seen a concert photo of Brown — sweat pouring off his face, his features twisted with emotion. William Coulson, the attorney for Brown's estate, says when a phone card company put one of those images on its cards, it violated Brown's "right of publicity."Indiana has such a law, at IC 32-36-1-19. For more on the Indiana right, see this ILB entry from May 5, 2007."The right of publicity is the right to your image and your voice and other personal characteristics," Coulson says. "And you are protected from the commercial use by somebody else of your image. It's a little different from copyright. You can copyright a song, you can copyright a movie — that is a tangible work of art. … But rights of publicity are quite different."
If a photographer takes a photograph, the photo is an original work and it's protected by copyright. But the subject of that photo must grant permission before it is used on a product like a T-shirt or a mug. Celebrities typically charge a licensing fee for that use. The "right of publicity" is a law in about 20 states.
BTW, the ILB looked up the website of the attorney in the James Brown story, William Coulson and found that his firm, Gold & Coulson in Chicago, has a rather attractive law firm website.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 13, 2008 10:08 AM
Posted to General Law Related