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[Goldy20051]

Hi! Does anyone know anything about right to privacy? If I draw a caricature of a famous person (celebrity) ... then classify it as a 'parody' ... does that allow me to sell this caricature? I know the celebrity has a right to defend his "likeness"; however, a defense to this is to claim your work is a parody. So, whaddya think? If I make a caricature and change it enough so that it is clearly making fun of a celebrity, can't I claim it's a parody and sell the work? Thanks!

[David Fields]

I dont know how much control a person has over their image. I think the control factor comes into play if you are using their likeness to an ill purpose.
For example, if you put someone's likeness on a box of cereal, it would appear as an endorsement of the product. If the person is NOT endorsing it, that is fraudulent.
If you are using the person's likeness to make a statement or simply for arts sake, then I think you are safe.
It all depends on what your intended or perceived intended purpose is.

[nobody]

With a famous person, it's not the right of privacy you need to consult, but the publicity rights. For example:

http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/0603winter.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/06/02/state1859EDT0133.DTL

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=9th&navby=case&no=9655243&exact=1

[DS Fields]

Thank you for the links. Informative reading.

I think I have a pretty good understanding of this, but situations like the Governor Schwartzenegger Bobblehead has me confused. I recognize that they settled and did not go to court, but on what grounds would the Governor have been able to quash such political satire?

[Isaac]

There are different types of tort actions that could be
relevant.  There are privacy rights, rights to exploit
ones name/image commercially, and maybe even some defamation
type torts.   All of those things are creatures of state
law although there are some first amendment limits on what
kinds of things can be actionable.

The fact that the governor is a public figure makes
defamation and privacy right actions a little more difficult
to sustain in this situation, but I don't see why a publicity
right action would not be viable, and I believe those laws
are at least as strong in CA as in other states.