New York State Assembly Bill A560C

New York’s legislature may be closing in on passing a Right of Publicity statute with New York State Assembly Bill A5605C.  If so, it would be a significant development in the Right of Publicity realm as New York has been conspicuously behind other states for a very long time.  As of July 20, 2020, the bill was “amended on third reading” (here’s a link to the timeline and status of the bill which also has link to the PDF of the bill itself):  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/A5605

Overall, my take is that this bill would be a step in the right direction, even as it would still amount to New York having one of more narrow or limited Right of Publicity statutes in the United States.  For example, a forty year post-mortem provision is quite anemic, and creating a registry system sounds good on paper but in my experience is not particularly helpful yet introduces various problems.  Video games are not on the list of exempted works, as they should not be, and also to its credit, the bill has meaningful provisions in relation to Deepfakes and the problems such technology present in the modern world.

The progress of this bill seems already to have traveled further than past efforts.  Hopefully, tired refrains like “this bill exists only to enrich a few wealthy estates” are worn-out by now and find no traction.  Does copyright and trademark exist only to enrich a few wealthy creators or companies?  Observations of past legislative efforts in New York are addressed in the following link I made on the topic:  https://rightofpublicity.com/observations-about-new-yorks-assembly-bill-a-8155b