Personal Right to Publicity in the U.S.

Video Transcript

"You're wondering how the right to publicity works in the United States. Hello, I'm Robert Todd and I'm here to answer the question, "How does my Personal Right to Publicity in the United States work?" Well, first of all, "What is the right of publicity"? Is it found in the Constitution of the United States? Not really. Is it found in the laws of the 50 states? Probably. Is the right to publicity going to vary from state to state? Yes. So if you have a question about what the right to publicity is, you're going to have to familiarize yourself with your particular state's statutes and case law on the right to publicity. Now, what is the right to publicity? It is the right to be compensated for your name or your likeness or something pertaining to you being used commercially. Okay. The right to publicity prevents someone, regardless of who that someone is, from appropriating your name or likeness and commercially exploiting it without your permission for compensation. Now, if you have a particular case, you may want to consider consulting a lawyer who specializes in the right to publicity because it is a very complex and comprehensive area of the law and you can't always understand what the right to publicity affords you in the way of protection by simply reading a statute. I'm Robert Todd and thank you for watching."