Legal Blur Over Celebrities' Rights

摘要

Let's suppose that you're the VP of marketing for a cable network that has licensed the rights to air a blockbuster feature film. You want to use stills and 30-second clips from the film, and professional and personal information about its stars, in an extensive promotional campaign on the network's Website. Unfortunately, the network's right to use these materials in this way is not explicitly authorized by the license agreement. You ask me, as the network's counsel, whether you can launch the campaign anyway. Good question. But the U.S. Supreme Court recently passed up the opportunity to help answer it, leaving us with only the vaguest understanding of when publicity rights trump free-speech rights and vice versa. At one end of the spectrum, 30 years ago, the court held that a broadcast news report of a "human cannonball" act at a state fair that included a 15-sec-ond film clip of his entire performance was not protected from the performer's right of publicity infringement claim by the broadcaster's First Amendment free-speech rights.