Winter v. DC Comics, 69 P.3d 473 (Cal. 2003)

The final privacy tort we will study borrows from the law of intellectual property. In an appropriation claim, a plaintiff (usually a celebrity) argues that someone used her likeness, signature, or image without consent. Does this tort exclusively protect individuals’ ability to profit from their own persona—and their incentive to do creative work? Or does control over an individual’s image also serve other important interests? Consider these questions in reading the next case.

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.