Welcome to Legal Entourage
Welcome. In one sentence: this is a blog intended to analyze LAW and MEDIA. What follows will be a weekly submission.
Entourage and Property
In Entourage's first season finale, "New York" (NY), we see many of the dilemmas in intellectual property. First of all, if you haven't seen Entourage this is a classic example of a quality TV show. The character interaction of Vince, Eric, Drama, and Turtle set in the LA world run by Ari Gold is a great distraction from reality for any viewer.
Secondly, NY represents Vince's property right over his own image. The contrasting of Vince's contract to film "Queen's Blvd." with Turtle's unauthorized use of Vince's photo to promote a party that Vince never attended, presents an illustration worthy of investigation. This episode presents an illustration of the conceptualization of property rights in Vanna White's suit against Samsung Electronics. In Samsung Judge Goodwin talks about the importance of context in establishing a proprietary interest in identity:
Taken together [the images] lead to the only conclusion that any sports viewer who has registered a discernible pulse in the past five years would reach: the ad is about Michael Jordan." White v. Samsung Electronics, 971 F.2d 1395, 1399.
In NY Vince made the decision to shoot "Queens Blvd.", a flic by Sundance winning director Billy Walsh. In the previous episode Vince's image as an actor is extremely important. In making the decision to shoot the film, Billy tested Vince's allegiance by scheduling a scene with Vince receiving a blow job. In that episode Vince built his "identity" as an actor to further heights.
In NY Turtle decides that he'll need money before the crew head back to New York for filming. As an outsider to the managment end of things, Turtle doesn't know that creating this party will be a publicity headache. Vince's image is owned by his agency for the purpose of getting more money. So they provide Vince with a publicist. Although publicists serve many important functions (including quality Britney Spears photos), they cultivate the identity of a star to produce more money for the stars next movie. In this case Turtle uses a random photo of Vince rather than the publicist approved version. He hands out fliers with this illicit photo on it to people all over LA to ensure his profit for the party. He is essentially depicting Vince in a manner which is damaging to the "Vince" the publicist is trying to create.
From a legal standpoint a question to ask is if this sort of usage intrudes on any "identity" rights similar to those of Vanna White in Samsung. This usage was for profit supposedly licensed by Vince. The advertisement certainly seemed to promote Vince as showing up at the party, and at the least the flier showed Vicne's involvement. Vince's identity was channeled, but it was not the identity the publicist was cultivating.
Thirdly, Thanks for reading this and post any movies I should watch.
Spencer
Entourage and Property
In Entourage's first season finale, "New York" (NY), we see many of the dilemmas in intellectual property. First of all, if you haven't seen Entourage this is a classic example of a quality TV show. The character interaction of Vince, Eric, Drama, and Turtle set in the LA world run by Ari Gold is a great distraction from reality for any viewer.
Secondly, NY represents Vince's property right over his own image. The contrasting of Vince's contract to film "Queen's Blvd." with Turtle's unauthorized use of Vince's photo to promote a party that Vince never attended, presents an illustration worthy of investigation. This episode presents an illustration of the conceptualization of property rights in Vanna White's suit against Samsung Electronics. In Samsung Judge Goodwin talks about the importance of context in establishing a proprietary interest in identity:
Taken together [the images] lead to the only conclusion that any sports viewer who has registered a discernible pulse in the past five years would reach: the ad is about Michael Jordan." White v. Samsung Electronics, 971 F.2d 1395, 1399.
In NY Vince made the decision to shoot "Queens Blvd.", a flic by Sundance winning director Billy Walsh. In the previous episode Vince's image as an actor is extremely important. In making the decision to shoot the film, Billy tested Vince's allegiance by scheduling a scene with Vince receiving a blow job. In that episode Vince built his "identity" as an actor to further heights.
In NY Turtle decides that he'll need money before the crew head back to New York for filming. As an outsider to the managment end of things, Turtle doesn't know that creating this party will be a publicity headache. Vince's image is owned by his agency for the purpose of getting more money. So they provide Vince with a publicist. Although publicists serve many important functions (including quality Britney Spears photos), they cultivate the identity of a star to produce more money for the stars next movie. In this case Turtle uses a random photo of Vince rather than the publicist approved version. He hands out fliers with this illicit photo on it to people all over LA to ensure his profit for the party. He is essentially depicting Vince in a manner which is damaging to the "Vince" the publicist is trying to create.
From a legal standpoint a question to ask is if this sort of usage intrudes on any "identity" rights similar to those of Vanna White in Samsung. This usage was for profit supposedly licensed by Vince. The advertisement certainly seemed to promote Vince as showing up at the party, and at the least the flier showed Vicne's involvement. Vince's identity was channeled, but it was not the identity the publicist was cultivating.
Thirdly, Thanks for reading this and post any movies I should watch.
Spencer
posted by Spencetron at
5:25 PM
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