Federal Right of Publicity

Introduction

The time has come for a federal right of publicity statute. Because of technological advances, expressive works and advertisements are increasingly disseminated on a national, if not international, scale. Right of publicity law, however, remains entirely a creature of state law. Different states have widely divergent right of publicity laws. This divergence results in a multistate patchwork that forces national content producers to engage in self-censorship and tailor their content to the laws of states that provide the least amount of protection to free speech rights. The outsized role of Indiana’s right of publicity law provides a good example. In recent years, numerous lawsuits have been brought against non-Indiana defendants for violations of Indiana right of publicity law by celebrities and heirs of deceased celebrities who have had little or no connection to Indiana. The reason is simple. Indiana’s right of publicity statute is the most plaintiff-friendly in the nation, and it contains sweeping...