[cc-licenses] Permission to publish a photo of a person

James Grimmelmann james at grimmelmann.net
Wed Sep 26 09:28:43 EDT 2007


Stefanie Calkins wrote:
> I took a photo recently of Tiger Woods. A book publishing company  would
> like to use it in a children's encyclopedia. Do I need to get  his
> permission to allow his photo to be used? Thx

Eldrick "Tiger" Woods is fairly litigious over his claims to control his
right of publicity.  See ETW Corp. v. Jireh, 332 F.3d 915 (6th Cir.
2003), in which the Sixth Circuit took forty-five pages to dismiss his
trademark, right of publicity, false advertising, unfair competition,
and deceptive trade practices claims against an artist who sold copies
of a painting of Woods.

I don't have time at the moment to get to get into the pros and cons of
asking permission, but this seemed like a fairly important data point
for the discussion.

James



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