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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Political Economy Of Celebrity Rights, Mark Bartholomew
The Political Economy Of Celebrity Rights, Mark Bartholomew
Journal Articles
This essay discusses how the right of publicity became such a robust property right — much more far-reaching than analogous rights in copyright or trademark. One cannot explain the accretion of celebrity publicity rights as a matter of legal logic or simple reaction to the growing economic value of celebrity endorsements. Instead, the essay explains the right's expansion from the perspective of political economy. Critical innovations to the right of publicity occurred in the particular political environment of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite some groups' resistance to new, specialized entitlements for celebrities, the conditions were right for a particular coalition …
When Privacy Almost Won: Time, Inc. V. Hill (1967), Samantha Barbas
When Privacy Almost Won: Time, Inc. V. Hill (1967), Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
Drawing on previously unexplored and unpublished archival papers of Richard Nixon, the plaintiffs’ lawyer in the case, and the justices of the Warren Court, this article tells the story of the seminal First Amendment case Time, Inc. v. Hill (1967). In Hill, the Supreme Court for the first time addressed the conflict between the right to privacy and freedom of the press. The Court constitutionalized tort liability for invasion of privacy, acknowledging that it raised First Amendment issues and must be governed by constitutional standards. Hill substantially diminished privacy rights; today it is difficult if not impossible to recover against …
The Social Origins Of The Personality Torts, Samantha Barbas
The Social Origins Of The Personality Torts, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Intellectual Property’S Lessons For Information Privacy, Mark Bartholomew
Intellectual Property’S Lessons For Information Privacy, Mark Bartholomew
Journal Articles
There is an inherent tension between an individual’s desire to safeguard her personal information and the expressive rights of businesses seeking to communicate that information to others. This tension has multiplied as consumers generate and businesses collect more and more personal data online, forcing efforts to strike an appropriate balance between privacy and commercial speech. No consensus on this balance has been reached. Some privacy scholars bemoan what they see as a slanted playing field in favor of those wishing to profit from the private details of other people’s lives. Others contend that the right in free expression must always …
From Privacy To Publicity: The Tort Of Appropriation In The Age Of Mass Consumption, Samantha Barbas
From Privacy To Publicity: The Tort Of Appropriation In The Age Of Mass Consumption, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Striking A Balance Between Privacy And Online Commerce, Mark Bartholomew
Striking A Balance Between Privacy And Online Commerce, Mark Bartholomew
Journal Articles
It is becoming commonplace to note that privacy and online commerce are on a collision course. Corporate entities archive and monetize more and more personal information. Citizens increasingly resent the intrusive nature of such data collection and use. Just noticing this conflict, however, tells us little. In "Informing and Reforming the Marketplace of Ideas: The Public-Private Model for Data Production and the First Amendment" Professor Shubha Ghosh not only notes the tension between the costs and benefits of data commercialization, but suggests three normative perspectives for balancing privacy and commercial speech. This is valuable because without a rich theoretical framework …
Saving Privacy From History, Samantha Barbas
How The Movies Became Speech, Samantha Barbas
How The Movies Became Speech, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
In its 1915 decision in Mutual Film v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, the Supreme Court held that motion pictures were, as a medium, unprotected by freedom of speech and press because they were mere “entertainment” and “spectacles” with a “capacity for evil.” Mutual legitimated an extensive regime of film censorship that existed until the 1950s. It was not until 1952, in Burstyn v. Wilson, that the Court declared motion pictures to be, like the traditional press, an important medium for the communication of ideas protected by the First Amendment. By the middle of the next decade, film censorship in the …
The Laws Of Image, Samantha Barbas
The Laws Of Image, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
We live in an image society. Since the turn of the 20th century if not earlier, Americans have been awash in a sea of images throughout the visual landscape. We have become highly image-conscious, attuned to first impressions and surface appearances, and deeply concerned with our own personal images – our looks, reputations, and the impressions we make on others. The advent of this image-consciousness has been a familiar subject of commentary by social and cultural historians, yet its legal implications have not been explored. This article argues that one significant legal consequence of the image society was the evolution …
The Sidis Case And The Origins Of Modern Privacy Law, Samantha Barbas
The Sidis Case And The Origins Of Modern Privacy Law, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
The American press, it’s been said, is freer to invade personal privacy than perhaps any other in the world. The tort law of privacy, as a shield against unwanted media exposure of private life, is very weak. The usual reason given for the weakness of U.S. privacy law as a bar on the publication of private information is the strong tradition of First Amendment freedom. But “freedom of the press” alone cannot explain why liberty to publish has been interpreted as a right to print truly intimate matters or to thrust people into the spotlight against their will. Especially in …
A Right Is Born: Celebrity, Property, And Postmodern Lawmaking, Mark Bartholomew
A Right Is Born: Celebrity, Property, And Postmodern Lawmaking, Mark Bartholomew
Journal Articles
This Article challenges the standard account of the creation of the right of publicity. In the legal literature, the prevailing narrative is of the right of publicity being intimately linked to the commodification of celebrity. Ultimately, however, there is more to the story of the right of publicity than the decision to protect something of economic value. It took decades after it had become clear that celebrities could be valuable commercial spokespersons for lawmakers to agree to make the right inheritable, separate from the dignitary right of privacy, and potentially applicable to any economic, secondary use that invoked the celebrity …
The Death Of The Public Disclosure Tort: A Historical Perspective, Samantha Barbas
The Death Of The Public Disclosure Tort: A Historical Perspective, Samantha Barbas
Journal Articles
In 1890, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, in their famous Harvard Law Review article The Right to Privacy, called for a new legal right that would allow the victims of truthful but embarrassing press publicity to recover damages for emotional harm. Currently, in most states, it constitutes a tort if the disclosure of “matter concerning the private life of another” would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and the matter is not “of legitimate concern to the public,” or newsworthy. However, because courts generally consider virtually everything that appears in the news media to be newsworthy, the public disclosure …
Lawrence M. Friedman's Guarding Life's Dark Secrets : Legal And Social Controls Over Reputation, Propriety, And Privacy (Book Review), James A. Gardner
Lawrence M. Friedman's Guarding Life's Dark Secrets : Legal And Social Controls Over Reputation, Propriety, And Privacy (Book Review), James A. Gardner
Book Reviews
No abstract provided.