60 Minutes Runs “A Living For the Dead” segment
The Right of Publicity was part of 60 Minutes’ season premier episode on Sunday, September 27, 2009, in a segment captioned “A Living For The Dead.” I’ve had quite a few people contact me concerning inaccuracies that the story conveyed. Mostly missing from the story was the idea that representing deceased personalities, in conjunction with the heirs of those personalities, involves an effort to protect and further the legacy of that person, and in many cases the causes which were important to him or her. It isn’t just about money, as the angle of the story seemed to emphasize. There were quite a few off-color comments and missed opportunities to enlighten the public of the importance of the right of publicity and the work that at least some put into representing departed legends. Here is a link to the CBS story: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5345034n
September 29th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Agree with Jonathan here. Many personalities (Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Einstein) strive to protect the legacy and mission of the estate, and above all, strive for uses which are authentic to their real life persona. It would have been nice to see examples of objectional uses (like last year’s Kurt Cobain ad) that demonstrate the spirit of these laws in protecting a personality’s legacy, and the value of such efforts to the fans, who rely on the estates to produce or approve authentic and respectful products and ads.
Otherwise, entertaining, if not exactly educational.