9th Circuit Court Elevates Celebrity Privacy Rights Over Video Game Portrayals 207
The EFF posted a biting response to yesterday's Ninth Circuit ruling that heavily weights celebrities' right to privacy, and construes that right very broadly. From the EFF summary of the case: "The plaintiff, Sam Keller, brought the case to challenge Electronic Art (EA)'s use of his likeness in its videogame NCAA Football. This game includes realistic digital avatars of thousands of college players. The game never used Keller’s name, but it included an avatar with his jersey number, basic biographical information, and statistics. Keller sued EA claiming that the game infringed his right of publicity — an offshoot of privacy law that gives a person the right to limit the public use of her name, likeness and/or identity for commercial purposes. ... Two judges on the panel found that EA’s depiction of Keller was not transformative. They reasoned that the 'use does not qualify for First Amendment protection as a matter of law because it literally recreates Keller in the very setting in which he has achieved renown.'"
The piece later notes that this reasoning "could impact an extraordinary range of protected speech."
Not bribing (Score:5, Insightful)
More like now nobody can without bribing all the players.
How is it "bribing" a player to give them money so in return you have their permission to use their likeness?
If someone created a game that used your likeness wouldn't you think you should at least be asked permission to do so?
Why Should EA Profit from His Likeness? (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't a matter of parody or satire; this is EA making money from the likenesses of people they never compensated. It is akin to creating a CGI representation of an athlete or celebrity and using it in a TV commercial.
Re:Not bribing (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not bribing (Score:4, Insightful)
If I was awesome in the game, I would be happy that I'm being portrayed as awesome to the world. If I was portrayed in a neutral light, I wouldn't have a reason to care all that much. If I was potrayed as lame, then it would obviously be some kind of parody or other transformation, so while I may be unhappy, I wouldn't have any just complaint.
Easy for some nobody, no-name neckbeard to say.
However, if your fiscal security was based on your own likeness, you'd probably be singing a different tune.
Re:Solution to the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
should of
You fail.
Re:some are more equal than others (Score:4, Insightful)
A Jersey # and some playing stats, licensed from the NCAA. It's not like they secretly motion captured him with his girlfriend and 'hot chocolated' them.
Re:Not bribing (Score:0, Insightful)
No, his fiscal security is based on his continued perfromance. If his face got burnt off and somehow didn't affect his eyesight, he could still play at a high level, likeness has nothing to do with it.
Re:Solution to the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
"Two judges on the panel found that EA’s depiction of Keller was not transformative." Ok, next patch they will transform his stats to the worst player in the game.
this is a great opportunity to employ the small penis rule [wikipedia.org]. slightly change the likenesses of the players from reality, and in the stats, just list their penis as 2-inches long.
Re:Not bribing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not bribing (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone created a game that used your likeness wouldn't you think you should at least be asked permission to do so?
I might prefer to be asked for permission first, but I don't believe that censorship is the answer or that I should be able to stop them from arranging data in a certain way.
Re:Does this apply to all athletes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Unions (theoretically) exist to protect the employees against the management through collective bargaining.
Unfortunately in the case of collegiate football, NCAA is the management, and the Universities are the staffing agencies, EA is a 3rd party buying the product, and no-one is representing the interests of the players.
Re:Does this apply to all athletes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why is this a problem? You are using their likeness to generate income without their consent or compensation.
Re:Does this apply to all athletes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly the point and why their is a lawsuit against both EA and the NCAA.
But they're not. (Score:5, Insightful)
They're using a jersey number assigned by the NCAA that will be reused for other players later, and a set of stats collected by the NCAA.
This won't last long, NCAA will just amend their terms so that all athletes must give up likeness rights to compete.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)