About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

19 Colum.-VLA J.L. & Arts 129 (1994-1995)
The Human Persona as Commercial Property: The Right of Publicity

handle is hein.journals/cjla19 and id is 135 raw text is: The Spring 1995 Horace S. Manges Lecture - The Human Persona as Commercial Property: The Right of Publicity by J. Thomas McCarthy* INTRODUCTION: TWO SETS OF EVENTS THAT CHANGED RIGHT OF PUBLICITY LAW There are two sets of events in the past few years that will continue to increase interest in and awareness of the right of publicity. One set of events occurred in California from 1988 to 1992. That was a trilogy of right of publicity cases - all resulting in a win for plaintiffs - that were given nationwide publicity and attention. Those were the Bette Midler, Vanna White and Tom Waits cases. The other half of this set of events consists of the publication this year of the final version of the new Restatement of the law of Unfair Competition, put together by two highly skilled reporters and a blue ribbon group of advisors from the prestigious American Law Institute. The new Restatement strongly supports the right of publicity.' The California side of these events started in 1985 when the Ford Motor Company and its advertising agency Young & Rubicam advertised the Ford Lincoln and Mercury with a series of television ads in what the advertisers called the yuppie campaign. Different popular songs of the seventies were sung as background on each commercial, the ad agency trying to get the singers that had originally popularized the songs to specially record them for the Ford ads. One of those songs was the 1973 hit, Do You Want to Dance, sung by Bette Midler. Bette Midler was asked by Ford Motors to specially record the song for a commercial. She refused. And she did not give Ford permission to use the original recording of her voice for the television ad. Young & Rubicam sought out a singer who had sung backup for Bette Midler for some years. She was told to sound as much as possible like Bette Midler singing Do You Want to Dance and she imitated Midler very well. Many people who heard the commercial thought that it was in fact Bette Midler singing. Ford did not infringe the copyright in the * Professor of Law, University of San Francisco. The author is the author of McCARTHY ON TRADEMARKS AND UNFAIR COMPETITION (3d ed. 1992); THE RIGHTS OF PUBLICITY AND PRIVACY; and McCARTHY'S DESK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. This article is based upon a speech given by Professor McCarthy at the Spring 1995 Horace S. Manges Lecture, delivered on March 9, 1995 at the Columbia University School of Law. Copyright © 1995 by J. Thomas McCarthy. 1. RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF UNFAIR COMPETITION §§ 46-49 (1995).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most