Orange County Attorneys

Newport Beach Car Accident Attorney Sebastian Gibson provides this 2010 Entertainment Law News - Privacy and Publicity Rights Law Changes. California Privacy Rights Law News, The Right To Control The Use Of Your Image. For information about how Newport Beach Car Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson can provide representation of you in connection with an auto accident in the Newport Beach and Huntington Beach area, read on. 

Whether you are a star in the California entertainment industry in Newport Beach or for any other reason you have become famous even for fifteen minutes of fame, you may have need of a publicity rights and privacy rights attorney when others try to make money using your image.

As any celebrity or personality knows, the right of publicity in California is the right of anyone to control the commercial use of their identity. It is your personal right. Others may attempt to misappropriate it for commercial gain and if they do, you can seek damages. If you are dead and your image is misappropriated, your estate can seek damages.

All that needs to be proven are the use of your identity, that is, the use of your name or likeness, the defendant’s advantage in using it, your lack of consent and injury. (Note, this is different from identity theft where a person uses your identity in a criminal manner to obtain credit in your name or empty your bank accounts and the like).

The basis for this right of publicity is the idea that every person should have the right to control how their identity or likeness or personality, or voice, name or image is commercialized by others.

Because the right is a property right, the right may be passed on to one’s heirs after death. The Celebrities Rights Act passed in California in 1985 extended the personality rights for a celebrity to 70 years after their death.

Note, however, that in 2007, a New York judge who ruled that Marilyn Monroe was a resident of New York and not California, also ruled that Marilyn Monroe’s rights of publicity ended upon her death.

The right of privacy is often pitted against competing First Amendment claims or claims of copyright. Each case is different and it is often necessary for an attorney to weigh these competing rights based on case law just and to attempt to predict how a judge would rule in that jurisdiction.

Examples of competing rights occur when a person’s image is contained in the copyrighted work of another. The results can differ depending on the type of copyrighted work, and a determination must be made as to whether the individual’s right has been preempted.

In First Amendment cases, the courts in California have favored First Amendment Claims over Publicity Rights Claims where the court has been able to find transformative elements, that is where the defendant is not merely trading on the value of the identity or image.

Publicity rights are often used interchangeably as privacy rights. However privacy rights often involve torts such as defamation or violations of state statutes involving the unauthorized use of data.

If someone tries to make use of your image or likeness for their gain without your consent, speak with a publicity and privacy rights lawyer immediately.

The Newport Beach Car Accident Law Firm of R. Sebastian Gibson has over 25 years of experience in representing clients involved in auto and car accidents, truck and motorcycle accidents, wrongful death cases, business, real estate, entertainment and intellectual property law matters throughout Newport and Laguna Beach and all of Orange County.

Today, we hope you will count on the Law Firm of R. Sebastian Gibson to be your Newport Beach car accident lawyers, and entertainment attorneys in Laguna Beach, in Huntington Beach and throughout Orange County.

If you have been involved in an auto, car, truck or motorcycle accident in Newport Beach or Laguna Beach, or any of the cities which make up Orange County, or have a privacy right or entertainment matter that requires the expertise of an Orange County attorney or lawyer in Laguna Beach, in Newport Beach or in Irvine, call the law firm of R. Sebastian Gibson and let our firm help you with your legal issues in Orange County today.

To learn more about our CA law firm's attorneys representation of Newport Beach clients in personal injury matters, auto and car accidents, motorcycle accidents and truck accidents, we invite you to click on the many other pages of our website which focus on our personal injury representation.