Image, Persona and the Law

Image Persona and the Law provides a comprehensive analysis the current state of the law in England and Wales regarding the protection of name, image and other aspects of persona.

This new 2nd edition goes into detail on both the specific context of commercial exploitation without the individual’s consent, and in the separate context of invasion of privacy. It also presents a detailed analysis of the numerous developments which have occurred in relation to the right to privacy in the UK.

• Provides you with a details analysis of the law of England and Wales regarding the protection of name, image and other aspects of persona
• Discusses how the laws have developed to protect against unjustified exploitation of one’s image
• Steps you though the significant developments which have occurred regarding the right to privacy in the UK
• Discusses the numerous significant decisions which have occurred since the previous edition
• Explains how the law of Passing Off was extended to provide claimants with a means of enforcing their personality rights
• Examines the leading Privacy decisions, and resulting alternative claims, which have been brought under the Data Protection Act 1998, including the Douglas/Zeta-Jones and JK Rowling’s son decisions
• Looks at the extent to which the law of defamation concerns the misuse of one’s image
• Covers the applicable copyright law which relates to the exploitation of identity
• Features a section on how trade mark law relates to image, name and persona
• Looks at how image can be exploited in an endorsement or sponsorship agreement
• Analyses the Codes of Conduct followed by journalists, the media and advertisers
• Details the historical evolution of publicity rights in the USA from the past 100 years
• Outlines the arbitration procedure for resolving domain name disputes
• Anticipates the future trends of development in UK law
• Discusses relevant European and international case law and legislation
• Written by a distinguished author from a leading media law firm who has worked on high profile cases in this area

• Subject matter
• Theme
• The right of publicity
• Recent developments in support of image protection
• Outlook

• Academic analysis
• Reasons why individuals sue
• Practical difficulties

• Judicial frustration at the absence of adequate protection
• Circumstances in which an image is captured - the UK's growing confidence
• Privacy finally recognised - the Human Rights Act
• Can individuals lose their entitlement to privacy?
• The public interest
• Douglas and Zeta-Jones/Hello! Litigation - the initial emergency injunction
• The court of appeal's desire to lay down guidelines for privacy injunctions
• Express confidentiality agreements
• Secret tape recordings of private conversations
• Images captured in a public street - the Peck ruling
• Douglas and Zeta-Jones/Hello! Litigation - the trial (first instance)
• House of Lords rule on privacy (misuse of private information) for the first time - the Naomi Campbell decision
• Strasbourg extends protection further to images taken in public of everyday life - the Von Hannover case
• Douglas and Zeta-Jones/Hello! Litigation - court of appeal
• The continuing importance of the UK courts in developing privacy law
• The power of the privacy injunction
• Ok! and Hello! - The House of Lords
• The UK's version of Von Hannover - JK Rowling's infant son
• The Mosley trial

• Introduction - the early approach to the exclusive use of one's name
• Summary of protection in the Victorian age
• Noms de Plume, pseudonyms and nicknames
• The human voice as identity
• Character merchandising and the importance of the 1970s
• Re-defining passing off
• Consolidation in the 1980s
• “Get-up”
• Re-assessing the need for a common field of activity
• Celebrity endorsements in the 1990s
• Common field of activity no longer required
• Domain names
• A new tort of unfair competition?

• Introduction - first interpretation by the court of the new act in the context of privacy and image
• Increasing reliance by claimants upon the DPA
• Douglas/Zeta-Jones
• JK Rowling's son

• Reputation in one's name
• Reputation in one's image
• False endorsement and defamatory meaning it conveys
• Protection in a new era
• Malicious falsehood

• The protection of names
• The protection of image
• The defence of fair dealing
• The defence of incidental inclusion
• Performers' rights
• Authors' moral rights

• The policy behind the protection of names
• Image, name and signature - the approach of the registry and the courts
• Celebrity endorsements and the need for distinctiveness

• Negotiating the deal for the celebrity
• Negotiating the deal for the corporate
• The standard contract
• Delivering what was agreed or intended
• The occasional need to imply terms
• The event organiser - controlling the right to take images
• Obtaining the necessary rights

• Complaints about misuse of image in advertisements
• Dissatisfaction with the decision of the ASA or the Ofcom complaint
• Domain name dispute resolution procedures
• New technology

• Jurisprudential arguments in support of an image right
• The critics' response
• How might a publicity right be recognised in the United Kingdom?
• Possible developments in the law

• Early development
• As the right evolves, so its ambit increases
• Merely evoking identity - increasing potential liability
• It may exist, but was the right inheritable?
• Is authorised exploitation during lifetime necessary?
• The Lanham Act