State Bill Worries ASMP . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
June 14, 2007


Eugene Mopsik, executive director of The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) issued an alert on this date asking that photographers contact New York State legislators about a bill that would make it more difficult to use images of deceased people for advertising and trade.

The bill, which is on a fast legislative track and could be enacted within days, has a retroactive clause that might open the door for the filing of lawsuits against photographers, galleries and others who have acted within the provisions of current law, ASMP noted.

A careful reading of the legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein and Senator Martin J. Golden hints that it also may leave the door open to lawsuits against stock photographers who license images of dead people for advertising and trade uses.

This could be true even when a person signed a model release while alive, and, perhaps, even when that release contains a specific clause concerning the model's heirs. Most stock photography model releases have a clause binding heirs to the provisions of the release.

The existence in state law of distinctly separate legal provisions involving living and dead people could create a nightmare scenario for stock photographers who often lose track of models they have hired for shoots. If the law is passed as it stands now, the issue might have to be settled by the courts.

New York State Assembly Bill A08836 (Senate Bill S6005) is designed to protect the estates of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne. Recent court cases involving the Monroe estate could potentially undermine publicity rights for celebrities.

But, the legislation goes far beyond the rights of celebrities and includes "any deceased natural person who died within seventy years prior to January first, two thousand eight."

Legislation enacted in New York State would affect most image uses because of the ease with which media, especially electronic media, cross state lines.

The ASMP web site is at: http://www.asmp.org.

For a list of New York senators, click here.

For a list of New York assembly persons: click here.

To read the New York State Assembly bill: click here.

To read the New York Senate bill: click here.