Tag: Legislation
Submission to Congress in Wake of AI Concerns
In July at a Senate hearing about Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property, several Senators and witnesses floated the possibility of adopting a new federal right of publicity or a more limited "digital impersonation" or digital replica law. In light of these calls and the seriousness with which they are being taken, I prepared a two-pager...
Louisiana’s Allen Toussaint Legacy Act Heads to Governor’s Desk
After several years of trying, the Allen Toussaint Legacy Act has now passed both chambers of the Louisiana legislature and was sent yesterday to the Governor for signature. The Act, SB426, is named after the famed New Orleans musician, songwriter, and producer, Allen Toussaint who died in 2015. The proposed law provides individuals with a...
New York Reintroduces Much Improved Postmortem Right of Publicity Bill
During its usual off-season, the New York legislature is revisiting its multi-year efforts to add new sections to its civil rights law and in particular to add a postmortem provision to state law. This latest version would add two sections to NY's Civil Rights Law, what it dubs a new “right of publicity” and a...
California Passes Law to Allow Student Athletes to Commercialize Their Identities
Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB206 which requires NCAA member universities to allow student athletes to sign endorsement deals and with agents and attorneys without losing their amateur status. Other states are following California's lead and introducing similar bills, and Congress has introduced a bill in the House along similar lines. I recently published...
New York Legislative Session Ends With No Vote on Right of Publicity Bill
The New York legislature closed its session without taking up the proposed right of publicity and privacy bill.
In final hours, New York Makes Last Minute Changes to Right of Publicity Bill
Apparently dropping around midnight Sunday, the New York legislature made a set of last-minute changes to the proposed right of publicity bill. The amendments focused solely on addressing broadcasters' concerns that remasters of existing works would violate the newly proposed "digital replica" right. Such remastering is now excluded from the provision. This change does nothing...
Letters and Statements of Opposition Filed Against Proposed New York Right of Publicity Bills
I sent a letter to members of the New York legislature and their staff today opposing the proposed right of publicity bills that have been introduced in the Senate and Assembly. I focus on four major concerns with the legislation: 1) the proposed redefinitions of the right of privacy and right of publicity, (2) the creation...
New York Assembly Revises Right of Publicity Bill to Match Flawed Senate Version
Today, the New York Assembly introduced an amended version of its proposed right of publicity bill. It is virtually identical (with only minor changes) to the senate bill introduced a few weeks ago, and contains no improvements or fixes from the highly flawed senate bill. This amended version unfortunately shares the chaos, confusion, and problems...
New York Reintroduces Right of Publicity Bill with Dueling Versions
Last week the New York Senate introduced a substantially revised version of a right of publicity bill, S5959. There are many promising improvements in this draft from the earlier assembly version (reintroduced in February), but also a lot of concerns raised by the draft. I am told that the Assembly will be introducing a different...
U. S. Copyright Office Considers a Federal Right of Publicity
In a report issued on April 23rd by the Register of Copyrights, the U.S. Copyright Office suggests that the lack of uniformity in state right of publicity laws may require Congressional intervention. The call for Congress to consider such a right arose in the course of a 107-page report issued by the office on the...