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B. Publicity Rights
Even if people can’t be property, perhaps names, faces, or parts of people can be property. Among other questions we will want to ask: Is labor necessary to create property rights? In the phenomenon known as “accession,” it’s not: a cow’s owner automatically owns her calf, whether or not the owner invested anything in the calf. Is labor sufficient to create property rights? Again, the answer elsewhere is: not always.
Property is often called on to decide issues of morality. Concepts of unjust enrichment, in which someone wrongfully benefits from another’s efforts, often play a role in resolving property disputes, as we see in the following case about owning attributes of identity, distinguishable from a physical body.
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