The Artful Jurist

More info has come in regarding the previous post about the photo of Oscar Wilde for which the Little Theatre of Alexandria was charged hundreds of dollars for its use of the photo in its publicity of the play, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

The company that from which the theater got the photo claimed that it was selling the right of publicity, which is a person's right to exploit his own image or likeness for commercial gain and prohibit others from doing so without permission. It's a common right in the United States, but it expires after a certain number of years beyond a person's death. The longest any state allows it to continue is 100 years after the person has died. Oscar Wilde died in the year 1900, more than 100 years ago.

Additionally, what little research I've done (and I admit it wasn't exhaustive) indicates that the United Kingdom (where Wilde was from) doesn't recognize the right of publicity after a person's death.

So I'm still puzzled about what this company was actually selling to the theater. Any thoughts out there?...