Thursday, July 05, 2007

Right of Privacy redux

It was just over a year ago that I first mentioned the "right of publicity" as a way of protecting your identity privacy. Now, the IP Law Observer notes that a case that was supposedly settled by a jury has been partially upset by an appeals court:

In considering claims under California's statutory right of publicity, Civil Code section 3344, in a case involving Nestle's unauthorized use of plaintiff's photograph on its Taster's Choice labels and advertising, a jury verdict for plaintiff was reversed and remanded where the trial court should have applied the single publication rule, and plaintiff did not establish that defendant's profits were attributable to the taking of his identity and persona.
I'm no lawyer, but having to show that someone else actually profited from the unauthorized use of your identity data (a picture of you) seems like it would be a stretch unless you could get a marketing guru to testify that simply by maintaining the use of the unauthorized likeness, Nestle implicitly shows that profit ensued since it would surely stop the use of the picture should it hinder profits.

The case has been remanded to the original court where the goings on should be interesting.

Comments:
Sounds to me like you are giving in to the privacy lobby on this one. Everything is public, right?
 
Somehow I can't see you agreeing with Scott McNealy, Kim....

:)
 
Post a Comment

© 2003-2006 The Virtual Quill, All Rights Reserved

Home

[Powered by Blogger]

-->