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A comment on In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After They're Dead. Parent comment

Re:In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After Th... by electric_sheep on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @06:31AM (#16528179)
Surely there must already exist some legal protections? I seem to recall certain professional (football? basketball?) players successfully suing EA Games over unauthorized use of their likeness.
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Re:In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After Th... by krapp on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @06:43AM (#16528214)
>Surely there must already exist some legal protections?

Almost certainly, I think there are companies whose entire business is to handle the image of dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, but should there be?

An actor or athlete's performance is a creative act, and could reasonably be considered intellectual property, but their appearance is an act of nature. Why should that have any special legal protection?

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Re:In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After Th... by 5555624 on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @07:32AM (#16528390)
It was NCAA athletes that sued EA games. (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/ea...)
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Re:In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After Th... by bsenftner on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @08:18AM (#16528623)
The distinction is it was NCAA as a whole, acting as a single legal entity. The individual athletes were/are powerless against the wealth EA can throw at their legal team.
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Re:In the Future Movie Stars May Be Performing Even After Th... by 5555624 on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @09:01AM (#16528874)
>Essentially each player who has appeared in the football and basketball games marketed by EA in the last decade -- approximately 125,000 men -- are eligible for settlement money. (https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ea-sports-se...)

In this case, it was clearly not the NCAA as a whole. The NCAA was against the case because it would mean athletes being paid.

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