9th Circuit Court Elevates Celebrity Privacy Rights Over Video Game Portrayals

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."

Comments

Solution to the problem

[Anonymous Coward]

"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.

Re:Solution to the problem

[dyingtolive]

You guys are adorable. Now go back to reddit.

Re:some are more equal than others

[oodaloop]

To be fair, I don't recall Animal Farm specifying in what year it took place. Maybe it also took place in the year 1984, albeit in an alternative dimension where animals talked and Oceana wasn't at war with Eastasia.

Re:some are more equal than others

[Anonymous Coward]

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.