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Le Morte d’Elvis: The Birth of New Claims as New York Statute Recognizes Post Mortem Right of Publicity Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Long before the birth of Elvis Presley in 1935, and even longer before his recent 86
th birthday on January 8, 2021, King Arthur was the legendary king of choice, and his story was most completely told in
Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Hence, we embrace the paraphrased allusion in the title above, to both Arthur and the King of Rock-n-Roll, who despite his absence from the public stage since 1977 remains a brand. Thus, Elvis is a good example of what a lay person would call post-mortem publicity rights, as his brand remains one today valued at over $300 million. What is also interesting is the role Elvis and his estate can play in explaining the legal issues associated with whether post-mortem publicity rights are available in various jurisdictions.
Editor’s note: Authorities are investigating a hack that disrupted the MLK Shabbat sermon that the Rev. Raphael Warnock delivered on Friday night at a virtual service hosted by an Atlanta synagogue. In his speech, Warnock – the pastor at Dr. King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and the newly elected United States Senator from Georgia – talked about the need for both the Black and Jewish communities to work together, to complete the unfinished work they started during the civil rights movement. He concluded his 25-minute remarks with an impassioned plea: “Regardless of your politics, will you pray for us?”
Here is a transcript of Rev. Warnock’s sermon.
Estate of Elvis Presley v. Russen, 513 F. Supp. 1339, 1344 and 1355 (D.N.J. 1981), said that “On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died,” purportedly, “but his legend and worldwide popularity have survived…” and “Elvis Presley’s right of publicity survived his death and became part of Presley’s estate.”
in a flash, or, for the uninitiated, just a way of taking care of the business of personal musical empire.
While one is not surprised that there have been doubters, disbelievers, and dissenters over the years as to the validity of the cases of Elvis sightings, this post passes over such controversies. Those are matters of faith for debate between such doubters, disbelievers, and dissenters and the fans, cover bands, and emulators. Those debates will never end, a veritable
In the Syracuse suburb of Manlius, police transparency carries a hefty price tag.
In June, the Manlius Police Department received an open-records request from MuckRock, a nonprofit news site. The request sought documents detailing any allegations of misconduct against current or former officers and any discipline the department imposed.
The department replied with a bill. For $47,504.
Six months ago, New York lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo repealed Section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law, a once-obscure provision that had been used to shield police disciplinary records from public view for decades.
The repeal came amid national and statewide protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in police custody after an officer pressed a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes.
State Supreme Court Justice Ann Marie Taddeo has temporarily blocked the city of Rochester from publicly releasing the disciplinary files of any Rochester police officer.
The city planned to publicly release a database of those files by the end of the year. But the Rochester Police Locust Club filed a lawsuit against the city on Dec. 21 seeking to prevent it from including personal information about Rochester police officers in any future release of disciplinary records. On Dec. 23, Taddeo ordered the city not to release any officer disciplinary files while the lawsuit proceeds through court.
Taddeo set a Feb. 3 hearing date for the city to make arguments that it should be allowed to release officers records without the officers and if they choose, Locust Club representatives first reviewing them to make sure they are accurate and that personal information is redacted. The union has said it is not trying to stop the ultimate release of the records.