Several sites are now commenting on the new Howard "Mean" Dean action figure where you press a button and it plays his Iowa concession speech, complete with the "Yaaarghhhh!" yelp. (I myself first saw it over at www.lucianne.com)
While I don't think Dean's yelp should disqualify him from the Presidency (his ideas should), I would still love to get one of these hilarious dolls!
But this brings up an issue I submitted to the ether of the blogosphere some months ago during the recall campaign. How can the nonsensical so-called "right of publicity" survive in any honest form when politicians try to market themselves as celebrities and celebrities are now bona-fide politicians?
For instance, if someone makes this Howard Dean doll (presumably without his permission), shouldn't they also be allowed to make a Barbara Streisand doll saying silly things using recordings of her speeches and/or songs?
Or does the legal community actually take the position that creating this Howard Dean doll should be unlawful as well?
I have said it once and I will say it again - the right of "publicity" should be thrown out by the courts as an egregious assault on the First Amendment except in the narrow case of clearly suggesting that someone actively endorses a commercial product when they in fact do not.
Posted by Justin Levine at January 23, 2004 03:57 AM | TrackBackThe time will come when someone is able to make a plausible movie by using software to morph together publically available still images of well-known actors and provide voice from recordings. This will be cheesy and lame the first time it's tried, but it will get better over time.
Does Barbara Streisand have the right to prohibit someone from doing that? If not, in a world where that technology exists,isnt' her career pretty much over?
Posted by: aphrael at January 23, 2004 08:29 AM (Permalink)Isn't there some notion of fair use and parody in making these products?
My biggest problem with celebs is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want all these laws protecting their privacy, but then their agents are always leaking news to the press and telling the papparazzi where they will be so that they can keep their profiles high. There is an upside and a downside to everything, and short of legitimate stalking, celebrities should deal with it.
Posted by: John A. Kalb at January 24, 2004 08:52 AM (Permalink)