Podcasts

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.

Full post as published by InternetCases.com on July 07, 2010 (boomark / email).