Thursday, November 19, 2020 - 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Online
“Buying Myself Back”:
Copyright, Right of Publicity, & Photography’s Human Subjects
Thursday, November 19th
5:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE to register in advance for this panel. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
“Buying Myself Back”: Copyright, Right of Publicity, & Photography’s Human Subjects
In the past several years, a number of high-profile celebrities—including Khloe Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, and Jennifer Lopez—have been sued for copyright infringement when they posted paparazzi’s images of themselves to their social media accounts. This fall, model/actor Emily Ratajkowski published “Buying Myself Back,” a compelling and unsettling reflection that touches on her experiences trying and failing to control images of her naked body, including purchasing and battling her ex for custody of a Richard Prince photo of herself; being a victim of revenge porn; and discovering that the photographer of an unpaid editorial photo shoot published two full-length books of nude Polaroids of her, one entitled “Emily Ratajkowski.” Meanwhile, this past summer, St. Louis lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey reacted to a Black Lives Matter protest near their house by standing on their lawn pointing guns at protestors. When their images went viral, they sued the photographer and the wire service as well as a company selling merchandise bearing the photos, even while they continue to use those photos for their holiday card and distribute signed copies to strangers upon request.
All of these stories raise fascinating legal and ethical questions around ownership, privacy, creativity and control at the intersection of copyright and right of publicity law. Our expert panelists will discuss the role of each doctrine in adjudicating disputes and shaping behavior, explore areas where the legal solutions feel unsatisfying or inadequate, and propose avenues for change.
Meet the Panel
Amy Adler, Emily Kempin Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Jeanne Fromer, Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Jennifer E. Rothman, William G. Coskran Professor of Law
LMU Loyola Law School
Moderator
Alexandra J. Roberts, Professor of Law
UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Biographies
Amy Adler, the Emily Kempin Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, is a leading scholar in a variety of fields, from art law to free speech to feminism. A few of her recent articles and works-in-progress include: “What Happened to the Feminist Critique of Pornography?,” “The Shifting Law of Sexual Speech,” “Art’s First Amendment Status,” and “Fair Use and the Future of Art.” She first wrote about the Richard Prince’s Instagram art which we will discuss tonight in her 2018 article “Why Art Does not Need Copyright” and again in 2019 in “Taking Intellectual Property Law into Their Own Hands,” which she coauthored with Jeanne Fromer, also on tonight’s panel.
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Professor Jeanne Fromer specializes in intellectual property, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and design protection laws. Some of her recent and forthcoming scholarship studies trademark registrations empirically to examine whether we are running out of effective trademarks; trade secret and copyright laws in light of growing uses of artificial intelligence; the ways that copyright and trademark holders take intellectual property into their own hands; the claiming systems for design protection pursuant to copyright, design patent, and trademark laws; and the protectability of fashion designs in intellectual property. She is faculty co-director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy.
Professor Fromer is currently an Adviser for the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law, Copyright. She is the author of a free copyright textbook, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials, with Chris Sprigman. In 2011, Professor Fromer was awarded the American Law Institute's inaugural Young Scholars Medal for her scholarship in intellectual property.
Before coming to NYU, Professor Fromer served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked at Hale and Dorr LLP (now WilmerHale) in the area of intellectual property. In addition, she was an Alexander Fellow with the New York University School of Law and a Resident Fellow with Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. Professor Fromer was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and she also previously taught at Fordham Law School.
Professor Fromer earned her B.A., summa cum laude, in Computer Science from Barnard College, Columbia University. She received her S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research work in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics and worked at AT&T (Bell) Laboratories in those same areas. As a graduate student, Professor Fromer was both a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an AT&T Laboratories Graduate Research Fellow. Professor Fromer received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, serving as Articles and Commentaries Editor of the Harvard Law Review and as Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.
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Jennifer E. Rothman is the William G. Coskran Professor of Law at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. In the Spring of 2021, she will be a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and an adviser on the Restatement of the Law (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy. She is also an affiliated fellow at the Yale Information Society Project at Yale Law School. She is the 2019-2020 recipient of the David P. Leonard Faculty Service Award for outstanding teaching and service.
Professor Rothman is nationally recognized for her scholarship in the intellectual property field, and is the leading expert on the right of publicity. Her scholarship regularly appears in top law reviews, most recently in the Yale Law Journal. Her book, The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World, was published by Harvard University Press. The book has been described as the “definitive biography of the right of publicity.” She also created Rothman’s Roadmap to the Right of Publicity, www.rightofpublicityroadmap.com, the go-to-website for right-of-publicity questions and commentary.
Rothman received her A.B. from Princeton University where she received the Asher Hinds Book Prize and the Grace May Tilton Prize. Rothman received her J.D. from UCLA, where she graduated first in her class and won the Jerry Pacht Memorial Constitutional Law Award for her scholarship. Rothman served as law clerk to the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced as an entertainment and intellectual property litigator in Los Angeles at Irell & Manella before starting her academic career at Washington University in St. Louis.
………………………………………
Alexandra J. Roberts is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. She teaches and writes in the areas of trademark and false advertising law, entertainment law, contracts, and law and literature. Her current scholarship focuses on trademark use and distinctiveness generally and how trademarks function on social media in particular.
Professor Roberts holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an A.M. from Stanford University, and a J.D. from the Yale Law School. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at UNH Law and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Law. Prior to entering academia, she was an associate in the intellectual property litigation group at Ropes & Gray, first in its New York and then in its Boston office. Professor Roberts is co-chair of the Junior Intellectual Property Scholars Association (JIPSA) and an Affiliated Fellow of the Yale information Society project.
Thursday, November 19th
5:00 p.m. ET
CLICK HERE to register in advance for this panel. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
“Buying Myself Back”: Copyright, Right of Publicity, & Photography’s Human Subjects
In the past several years, a number of high-profile celebrities—including Khloe Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, and Jennifer Lopez—have been sued for copyright infringement when they posted paparazzi’s images of themselves to their social media accounts. This fall, model/actor Emily Ratajkowski published “Buying Myself Back,” a compelling and unsettling reflection that touches on her experiences trying and failing to control images of her naked body, including purchasing and battling her ex for custody of a Richard Prince photo of herself; being a victim of revenge porn; and discovering that the photographer of an unpaid editorial photo shoot published two full-length books of nude Polaroids of her, one entitled “Emily Ratajkowski.” Meanwhile, this past summer, St. Louis lawyers Mark and Patricia McCloskey reacted to a Black Lives Matter protest near their house by standing on their lawn pointing guns at protestors. When their images went viral, they sued the photographer and the wire service as well as a company selling merchandise bearing the photos, even while they continue to use those photos for their holiday card and distribute signed copies to strangers upon request.
All of these stories raise fascinating legal and ethical questions around ownership, privacy, creativity and control at the intersection of copyright and right of publicity law. Our expert panelists will discuss the role of each doctrine in adjudicating disputes and shaping behavior, explore areas where the legal solutions feel unsatisfying or inadequate, and propose avenues for change.
Meet the Panel
Amy Adler, Emily Kempin Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Jeanne Fromer, Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Jennifer E. Rothman, William G. Coskran Professor of Law
LMU Loyola Law School
Moderator
Alexandra J. Roberts, Professor of Law
UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Biographies
Amy Adler, the Emily Kempin Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, is a leading scholar in a variety of fields, from art law to free speech to feminism. A few of her recent articles and works-in-progress include: “What Happened to the Feminist Critique of Pornography?,” “The Shifting Law of Sexual Speech,” “Art’s First Amendment Status,” and “Fair Use and the Future of Art.” She first wrote about the Richard Prince’s Instagram art which we will discuss tonight in her 2018 article “Why Art Does not Need Copyright” and again in 2019 in “Taking Intellectual Property Law into Their Own Hands,” which she coauthored with Jeanne Fromer, also on tonight’s panel.
………………………………………
Professor Jeanne Fromer specializes in intellectual property, including copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, and design protection laws. Some of her recent and forthcoming scholarship studies trademark registrations empirically to examine whether we are running out of effective trademarks; trade secret and copyright laws in light of growing uses of artificial intelligence; the ways that copyright and trademark holders take intellectual property into their own hands; the claiming systems for design protection pursuant to copyright, design patent, and trademark laws; and the protectability of fashion designs in intellectual property. She is faculty co-director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy.
Professor Fromer is currently an Adviser for the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law, Copyright. She is the author of a free copyright textbook, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials, with Chris Sprigman. In 2011, Professor Fromer was awarded the American Law Institute's inaugural Young Scholars Medal for her scholarship in intellectual property.
Before coming to NYU, Professor Fromer served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Robert D. Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked at Hale and Dorr LLP (now WilmerHale) in the area of intellectual property. In addition, she was an Alexander Fellow with the New York University School of Law and a Resident Fellow with Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. Professor Fromer was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and she also previously taught at Fordham Law School.
Professor Fromer earned her B.A., summa cum laude, in Computer Science from Barnard College, Columbia University. She received her S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research work in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics and worked at AT&T (Bell) Laboratories in those same areas. As a graduate student, Professor Fromer was both a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an AT&T Laboratories Graduate Research Fellow. Professor Fromer received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, serving as Articles and Commentaries Editor of the Harvard Law Review and as Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.
………………………………………
Jennifer E. Rothman is the William G. Coskran Professor of Law at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. In the Spring of 2021, she will be a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and an adviser on the Restatement of the Law (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy. She is also an affiliated fellow at the Yale Information Society Project at Yale Law School. She is the 2019-2020 recipient of the David P. Leonard Faculty Service Award for outstanding teaching and service.
Professor Rothman is nationally recognized for her scholarship in the intellectual property field, and is the leading expert on the right of publicity. Her scholarship regularly appears in top law reviews, most recently in the Yale Law Journal. Her book, The Right of Publicity: Privacy Reimagined for a Public World, was published by Harvard University Press. The book has been described as the “definitive biography of the right of publicity.” She also created Rothman’s Roadmap to the Right of Publicity, www.rightofpublicityroadmap.com, the go-to-website for right-of-publicity questions and commentary.
Rothman received her A.B. from Princeton University where she received the Asher Hinds Book Prize and the Grace May Tilton Prize. Rothman received her J.D. from UCLA, where she graduated first in her class and won the Jerry Pacht Memorial Constitutional Law Award for her scholarship. Rothman served as law clerk to the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced as an entertainment and intellectual property litigator in Los Angeles at Irell & Manella before starting her academic career at Washington University in St. Louis.
………………………………………
Alexandra J. Roberts is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. She teaches and writes in the areas of trademark and false advertising law, entertainment law, contracts, and law and literature. Her current scholarship focuses on trademark use and distinctiveness generally and how trademarks function on social media in particular.
Professor Roberts holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an A.M. from Stanford University, and a J.D. from the Yale Law School. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at UNH Law and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Law. Prior to entering academia, she was an associate in the intellectual property litigation group at Ropes & Gray, first in its New York and then in its Boston office. Professor Roberts is co-chair of the Junior Intellectual Property Scholars Association (JIPSA) and an Affiliated Fellow of the Yale information Society project.
