Do We All Have a Right to Publicity?

The public considers it important to have a right to know everything about its favorite celebrities. Specialists are making a living following the rich and famous around the globe, capturing pictures from a distance using telescopic photo-lenses, or trespassing a private event, as in the Douglas v. Hello case, EWCA Civ 595 (2004). What distinguishes the celebrities from mere mortals is the fact that their pictures have a commercial value that may pass six-figures, whereas we bore our friends with the slides taken during our last cruise. However, people who are not famous do also have a right to publicity, at least under California law, KNB Enterprises v. Matthews, 78 Cal. App. 4th 362, 367 (2000): “Although the unauthorized appropriation of an obscure plaintiff's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness would not inflict as great an economic injury as would be suffered by a celebrity plaintiff, California's appropriation statute is not limited to celebrity plaintiffs.” Just as we may hold many copyrights, it does not make us as wealthy as JK Rowling.