Right of Publicity – Attorney Evan Brown

December 3, 2024 Right of Publicity, Section 230, Social Media

Section 230 protected Meta from Huckabee cannabis lawsuit

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, sued Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of Facebook, for using his name and likeness without his permission in advertisements for CBD products. Huckabee argued that these ads falsely claimed he endorsed the products and made misleading statements about his personal health. He asked the court to hold Meta accountable under various legal theories, including violation of his publicity rights and privacy.

Plaintiff alleged that defendant approved and maintained advertisements that misappropriated plaintiff’s name, image, and likeness. Plaintiff further claimed that the ads placed plaintiff in a false light by attributing statements and endorsements to him that he never made. Additionally, plaintiff argued that defendant had been unjustly enriched by profiting from these misleading ads. Defendant, however, sought to dismiss the claims, relying on the Communications Decency Act at 47 U.S.C. 230, which grants immunity to platforms for third-party content.

The court granted Meta’s motion to dismiss. It determined that Section 230 shielded defendant from liability for the third-party content at issue. The court also noted that plaintiff’s allegations lacked the specificity needed to overcome the protections provided by Section 230. Furthermore, the court emphasized that federal law, such as Section 230, preempts conflicting state laws, such as Arkansas’s Frank Broyles Publicity Protection Act.

Three reasons why this case matters:

Defines Section 230 Protections: It reaffirms the broad immunity tech companies enjoy under Section 230, even in cases involving misuse of publicity rights.
Digital Rights and Privacy: The case highlights the tension between protecting individual rights and maintaining the free flow of online content.
Challenges for State Laws: It shows how federal law can preempt state-specific protections, leaving individuals with limited recourse.

Mike Huckabee v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 2024 WL 4817657 (D. Del. Nov. 18, 2024)

March 23, 2024 Artificial Intelligence, Right of Publicity

AI and voice clones: Three things to know about Tennessee’s ELVIS Act

On March 21, 2024, the governor of Tennessee signed the ELVIS Act (the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act of 2024) which is aimed at the problem of people using AI to simulate voices in a way not authorized by the person whose voice is being imitated.

Here are three key things to know about the new law:

(1) Voice defined.

The law adds the following definition to existing Tennessee law:

“Voice” means a sound in a medium that is readily identifiable and attributable to a particular individual, regardless of whether the sound contains the actual voice or a simulation of the voice of the individual;

There are a couple of interesting things to note. One could generate or use the voice of another without using the other person’s name. The voice simply has to be “readily identifiable” and “attributable” to a particular human. Those seem to be pretty open concepts and we could expect quite a bit of litigation over what it takes for a voice to be identifiable and attributable to another. Would this cover situations where a person naturally sounds like another, or is just trying to imitate another musical style?

(2) Voice is now a property right.

The following underlined words were added to the existing statute:

Every individual has a property right in the use of that individual’s name, photograph, voice, or likeness in any medium in any manner.

The word “person’s” was changed to “individual’s” presumably to clarify that this is a right belonging to a natural person (i.e., real human beings and not companies). And of course the word “voice” was added to expressly include that attribute as something in which the person can have a property interest.

(3) Two new things are banned under law.

The following two paragraphs have been added:

A person is liable to a civil action if the person publishes, performs, distributes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to the public an individual’s voice or likeness, with knowledge that use of the voice or likeness was not authorized by the individual or, in the case of a minor, the minor’s parent or legal guardian, or in the case of a deceased individual, the executor or administrator, heirs, or devisees of such deceased individual.

A person is liable to a civil action if the person distributes, transmits, or otherwise makes available an algorithm, software, tool, or other technology, service, or device, the primary purpose or function of which is the production of an individual’s photograph, voice, or likeness without authorization from the individual or, in the case of a minor, the minor’s parent or legal guardian, or in the case of a deceased individual, the executor or administrator, heirs, or devisees of such deceased individual.

With this language, we see the heart of the new law’s impact. One can sue another for making his or her voice publicly available without permission. Note that this restriction is not only on commercial use of another’s voice. Most states’ laws discussing name, image and likeness restrict commercial use by another. This statute is broader, and would make more things unlawful, for example, creating a deepfaked voice simply for fun (or harassment, of course), if the person whose voice is being imitated has not consented.

Note the other interesting new prohibition, the one on making available tools having as their “primary purpose or function” the production of another’s voice without authorization. If you were planning on launching that new app where you can make your voice sound like a celebrity’s voice, consider whether this Tennessee statute might shut you down.

See also:

September 12, 2022 Right of Publicity

Court dismisses company executive’s name and likeness lawsuit over YouTube videos

name likeness

Strouse was the president and CEO of a company but departed with the company was sold. He did not approve of how the new company continued to use YouTube videos Strouse had made when he was with the company. So Strouse sued under Pennsylvania law for unauthorized use of his name and likeness. The company moved to dismiss the claim and the court granted the motion.

There are three elements to a claim for unauthorized use of name and likeness under Pennsylvania law:

a natural person’s name or likeness must have commercial value;
the accused party must make an unauthorized use of that name or likeness; and
the use is for commercial or advertising purposes.

The court found that Strouse’s claim failed on the first and second elements.

Although he claimed he suffered substantial damages due to the company’s supposed misappropriation, the court found he offered no explanation for how or why these damages occurred. He did not allege that his name had any special reputation or prestige such that mention of his name or use of his image in a video on the company’s website could confer an actionable benefit.

And the court found that Strouse’s pleadings did not establish that the company was using the videos without authorization. Strouse had made the videos as president and CEO of the company – he certainly authorized such use then. The acquiring company purchased the business’s assets, including the videos that were made.

Wurth Baer Supply Co. v. Strouse, 2022 WL 4125802 (M.D. Pennsylvania, September 9, 2022)

Intellectual property issues in a speaker’s agreement

Let’s say you’re going to host a conference — these days that would be an online conference — and you want to invite people to give presentations. You will want to enter into a contract with those presenters to cover some of the obvious logistical items: the presenter is obligated to show up, the presentation will be on a certain topic, it will last for a certain amount of time, and there may be payment. And there are some important intellectual property issues that the speaker’s agreement should also address.

Marketing and promotion of the event

One important intellectual property issue in a speaker’s agreement has to do with the marketing and promotion of the event. This involves primarily the right of publicity. You are likely going to want to generate materials, such as social media posts, that have the name and the image of the presenter. You will want to seek to get a release from the presenter that authorizes you to use his or her name and image in connection with the marketing and promotion of the event.

Handout materials

A second issue that you will need to deal with has to do with handout materials or other accompanying documentation for the presentation. You will want to make sure that you have the appropriate copyright license from the presenter allowing you to copy and distribute those materials. You should also consider getting assurances from the presenter that those materials will not infringe any third party intellectual property rights. And you may want to have the agreement say that the presenter will indemnify you and pay the cost of the defense if you get sued by a third party because the handout materials infringe.

Video or audio of the presentation

A third intellectual property issue that you will want to think about in connection with a speaker’s agreement has to do with any content that you generate at the event. Say, for example, you film the presentation and you want to make the video available to the world so it can see what the event was like. On this point we are back to the discussion of the right of publicity. Obviously the presenter’s name and image is going to be in that content. So you want to make sure that you have a release for that.

As the host of the event, you will likely want to own the copyright in the video. The presenter may ask for a carveout — that is, clarification that though you own the copyright in the video, the presenter retains ownership of the underlying content presented.

Need help with intellectual property issues in a speaker’s agreement?

Please feel free to give me a call or send an email. Dial (630) 362-7237, or email ebrown@internetcases.com.

January 19, 2016 Right of Publicity

Right of publicity case against Shaquille O’Neal over a photo he tweeted and posted to Instagram moves forward

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A federal court has held that a plaintiff has successfully pled a claim of “appropriation” (essentially, right of publicity claim) against former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, for Shaq’s use of plaintiff’s photo on Twitter and Instagram. The case is useful inasmuch as it shows how courts will consider social media as providing a benefit to its user.

Shaq acquired a photo of plaintiff, who suffers from a condition that affects his hair, skin and teeth, then placed a photo of himself making a contorted face next to the photo, apparently to imitate the way plaintiff appeared. Given that Shaq has millions of followers, this garnered many, many likes and comments. (I of course won’t republish the image here, but if you really want to see it, just do a Google Image search using the parties’ last names.)

Plaintiff sued under several theories, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, appropriation, and unjust enrichment. Shaq moved to dismiss most of the claims. The court did throw out some of the claims (e.g., negligence — plaintiff has pled Shaq acted intentionally). On the appropriation claim, the court, applying Michigan law, held that Shaq had made use of the plaintiff’s name or likeness for his own purposes and benefit. The court rejected Shaq’s argument that plaintiff lacked any pecuniary interest in his identify, holding that the tort of appropriation under Michigan law “is not limited to commercial appropriation” and “applies also when the defendant makes use of the plaintiff’s name or likeness for his own purposes and benefit, even though the use is not a commercial one, and even though the benefit sought to be obtained is not a pecuniary one.”

The court went on to clarify that even if the tort of appropriation under Michigan law did require a plaintiff to demonstrate a significant commercial or pecuniary interest in his identity, plaintiff’s case still survived the motion to dismiss. “[A] plaintiff need not be a national celebrity to demonstrate significant commercial value.”

Binion v. O’Neal, No. NO. 15-60869, 2016 WL 111344 (S.D. Fla., Jan. 11, 2016).

Evan Brown is a Chicago attorney advising enterprises on important aspects of technology law, including software development, technology and content licensing, and general privacy issues.

October 12, 2015 First Amendment, Privacy, Right of Publicity

California court okays lawsuit against mugshot posting website

The Court of Appeal of California has held that defendant website operator – who posted arrestees’ mugshots and names, and generated revenue from advertisements using arrestees’ names and by accepting money to take the photos down – was not entitled to have the lawsuit against it dismissed. Defendant’s profiting from the photos and their takedown was not in connection with an issue of public interest, and therefore did not entitle defendant to the relief afforded by an anti-SLAPP motion.

Plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit against defendant website operator, arguing that the website’s practice of accepting money to take down mugshots it posted violated California laws against misappropriation of likeness, and constituted unfair and unlawful business practices.

Defendant moved to dismiss, arguing plaintiff’s claims comprised a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” (or “SLAPP”). California has an anti-SLAPP statute that allows defendants to move to strike any cause of action “arising from any act of that person in furtherance of the person’s right of petition or free speech under the United States Constitution or the California Constitution in connection with a public issue …, unless the court determines that the plaintiff has established that there is a probability that the plaintiff will prevail on the claim.”

The court held that the posting of mugshots was in furtherance of defendant’s free speech rights and was in connection with a public issue. But the actual complained-of conduct – the generating of revenue through advertisements, and from fees generated for taking the photos down – was not protected activity under the anti-SLAPP statute.

Because the claims did not arise from the part of defendant’s conduct that would be considered “protected activity” under the anti-SLAPP statute, but instead arose from other, non-protected activity (making money off of people’s names and photos), the anti-SLAPP statute did not protect defendant. Unless the parties settle, the case will proceed.

Rogers v. Justmugshots.Com, Corp., 2015 WL 5838403, (Not Reported in Cal.Rptr.3d) (October 7, 2015)

Evan Brown is an attorney in Chicago helping clients manage issues involving technology and new media.

October 22, 2014 Right of Publicity

Court denies request of plaintiffs in right of publicity suit to exhume the body of Aunt Jemima

The great-grandsons of Anna S. Harringon, whose image formed the basis for Aunt Jemima, sued Quaker Oats Company and others for $2 billion claiming that defendants failed to pay royalties to Harrington’s estate after her death in 1955. One of the allegations in the case is that defendants played a role in Harrington’s death. Apparently, in an effort to support those allegations, plaintiffs sought an order from the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (where the matter is pending) allowing them to exhume the body of their great-grandmother for evidence of this malfeasance.

The court denied the request. Apart from it being just a bizarre ask, it turns out the “evidence” upon which the defendants’ role in Aunt Jemima’s death was based on a parody article from Uncyclopedia. In denying the motion, the court found the following:

The motion is primarily based on statements purportedly made by Quaker Oats executives about the death of the woman who had been identified as “Aunt Jemima.” But the source of the information is an uncyclopedia.wikia.com article, which is a parody website of Wikipedia. Uncyclopedia proudly bills itself as “an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies.” See uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Uncyclopedia:About.

The court also threatened the pro se plaintiffs: “Plaintiffs must take greater care in their submissions to the Court, or else face sanctions and, if litigation abuse continues, outright dismissal of the case.”

Hunter et al. v. PepsiCo Inc. et al., No. 1:14-cv-06011 (N.D. Ill. October 21, 2014)

BTW: Some info about Anna Harrington’s grave.

Evan Brown is an attorney in Chicago advising clients on matters dealing with technology, the internet and new media.

January 7, 2014 Cryptocurrency, Right of Publicity, Trademarks

The trademark and right of publicity woes of having a cryptocurrency named after you

Not too surprisingly, Kanye West’s lawyers have demanded the developers of the Coinye West cryptocurrency not use his name. The somewhat obnoxious letter shows that Kanye’s lawyers are asserting, among other things, trademark infringement and right of publicity misappropriation.

Russell Brandom at the Verge observes that “[o]nce the code is public, the original coders will be unable to prevent its use, forcing West’s legal team to prosecute every instance of Coinye individually.”

That observation raises a couple of interesting points. The first one is more of a clarification — once the code is in the wild, we should assume Kanye would only care to stop the use of his name, and would not seek (nor have any basis upon which) to stop anyone from using the code.

Stopping users of a cryptocurrency from using the name of that cryptocurrency could be a bit tough. Kanye’s lawyer threatens to “purse all legal remedies against any business that accepts the purported COINYE WEST currency.”

Infringement and misappropriation both depend on a use of the offending term in a commercial way. But users of the decentralized system, and the vendors who accept that currency, are not providers of any goods or services onto which Kanye’s identity will be attached. If one is merely using the currency as a tool, it’s hard to see how that’s any different from implicating the rights of the historical figures who appear on paper currency. So might it all be about the Benjamins? Maybe not at all.

April 4, 2011 Defamation, Right of Publicity, Section 230

Amazon and other booksellers off the hook for sale of Obama drug use book

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million from some, but not all claims brought over promotion and sale of scandalous book about presidential candidate.

Parisi v. Sinclair, — F.Supp.2d —, 2011 WL 1206193 (D.D.C. March 31, 2011)

In 2008, Larry Sinclair made the ultra-scandalous claim that he had done drugs and engaged in sexual activity with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Daniel Parisi, owner of the infamous Whitehouse.com website, challenged Sinclair to take a polygraph test.

Not satisfied with the attention his outlandish claims had garnered, Sinclair self-published a book detailing his alleged misadventures. The book was available through print-on-demand provider Lightening Source.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million (“BAM”) each offered Sinclair’s book for sale through their respective websites. (Barnes & Noble and BAM did not sell the book at their brick and mortar stores.) Each company’s website promoted the book using the following sentence:

You’ll read how the Obama campaign used internet porn king Dan Parisi and Ph.D. fraud Edward I. Gelb to conduct a rigged polygraph exam in an attempt to make the Sinclair story go away.

Parisi and his Whitehouse Network sued for, among other things, defamation and false light invasion of privacy. BAM moved to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) while Amazon and Barnes & Noble moved for summary judgment. The court granted the booksellers’ motions.

Section 230 applied because booksellers were not information content providers

The booksellers’ primary argument was that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded them from liability for plaintiffs’ claims concerning the promotional sentence. The court found in defendants’ favor on this point.

Section 230 provides in relevant part that “[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The major issue in this case was whether the online booksellers had provided the information comprising the promotional sentence. The court found that the pleadings (as to BAM) and the evidence (as to Amazon and Barnes & Noble) did not credibly dispute that the booksellers did not create and develop the promotional sentence.

But not so fast, Section 230, on some of those other claims!

The court’s treatment of Section 230 in relation to plaintiffs’ false light claim and the claims relating to the actual sale of the book were even more intriguing.

Plaintiffs argued that their false light claim was essentially a right of publicity claim. And Section 230(e)(2) says that immunity does not apply to claims pertaining to intellectual property. There is some confusion as to whether this exception to immunity applies only to federal intellectual property claims or to both federal and state IP claims. On one hand, Perfect 10, Inc. v. CCBill says that only federal intellectual property claims are excepted from immunity (which would mean that state law IP claims would be barred by Section 230). On the other hand, cases like Atlantic Recording Corp. v. Project Playlist, Doe v. Friendfinder Network and Universal Communication System v. Lycos suggest that both state and federal IP claims should withstand a Section 230 challenge.

In this case, the court indicated that it would have sided with the cases that provide for both federal and state claims making it past Section 230: “I am not inclined to extend the scope of the CDA immunity as far as the Ninth Circuit. . . . ”

But ultimately the court did not need to take sides as to the scope of Section 230(e)(2), as it found the use of plaintiff Parisi’s name fit into the newsworthiness privilege. One cannot successfully assert a misappropriation claim when his name or likeness is used in a newsworthy publication unless the use has “no real relationship” to the subject matter of the publication.

The court also seemed to constrain Section 230 immunity as it related to the online booksellers’ liability for selling the actual book. (Remember, the discussion above, in which the court found immunity to apply, dealt with the promotional sentence.) The court rejected defendants’ arguments that the reasoning of Gentry v. eBay should protect them. In Gentry, eBay was afforded immunity from violation of a warranty statute. But it merely provided the forum for the sale of goods, unlike the online booksellers in this case, which were the distributors of the actual allegedly defamatory book.

Even though Section 230 did not serve to protect BAM, Barnes & Noble and Amazon from liability for defamation arising from sales of the book, the court dismissed the defamation claim because of the lack of a showing that the booksellers acted with actual malice. It was undisputed that the plaintiffs were limited-purpose public figures. Persons with that status must show that the defendant acted with actual malice. That standard was not met here.

July 7, 2010 Right of Publicity

Use of name and image in YouTube clip did not support right of publicity claim

Fuentes v. Mega Media Holdings, Inc. 2010 WL 2634512 (S.D. Fla. June 30, 2010)

Plaintiff is a famous Cuban author who has written extensively about Raul Castro and other members of the Castro regime. The producers of the Maria Elvira Live show used plaintiff’s name and image in the content of one of the show’s episodes.

In addition to broadcasting the episode on TV, the producers uploaded clips from the show to YouTube. Plaintiff had not consented to that appearance and sued for, among other things, violation of Florida’s right of publicity statute, Florida Statute 540.08.

The show moved to dismiss the right of publicity claim and the court granted the motion.

It held that use of plaintiff’s name and image in this way did not violate the statute because the use was not “for purposes of trade or for commercial or advertsing purposes.” Looking to analogous cases (which, of course, did not involve social media), the court held that for this statutory standard to be met, the use of the name or image has to be separate and apart from the broadcast itself.

In these other cases, the individuals featured in the content of an audiovisual work sued under the statute and lost.

In Lane v. MRA Holdings, the plaintiff sued the producers of Girls Gone Wild. She lost even though her picture appeared on the cover of the DVD. In Tyne v. Time Warner, some individuals who were incorporated into the movie A Perfect Storm lost on the same grounds — their name and image had not been used separate and apart from the work itself.