Athletes’ image rights – just business or infringement of personality rights?
In a consumer-driven world where social media is growing rapidly, companies are constantly searching for ways to introduce their products to the clients. One of the most effective ways of doing so is through the use of athletes’ image. Using athletes’ image without the proper legal ground, can bring troubles, though, as was recently made clear by the controversial Zlatan Ibrahimović and other football players.
Is the use of the athletes’ image rights strictly commercial, or are their personality rights infringed as well? How (if at all) is the use of image rights regulated? Is there a better way to regulate it? All these issues are discussed by Timotej Kotnik Jesih in his article “Commercial exploitation of athletes’ image rights” published in the Pravna praksa magazine (pp. 11-13) on 26 November 2020.
The full article (in Slovene) is accessible here. You are welcome to read it!
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that maintains the Open Library, a digital library index, and is dedicated to preserving knowledge. As many of the works in the Internet Archive are under copyright, the Archive uses a system of controlled digital lending based on digital rights management to prevent unauthorized downloading or copying of copyrighted books. In March 2020, due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet Archive established the National Emergency Library, eliminating the waiting lists used in the Open Library and expanding access to books for all readers. In June 2020, the Emergency National Library faced a lawsuit from four book publishers and was ultimately closed.
The 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (hereinafter SCCR) made substantial progress on the issues advocated by the A2K Coalition (Access to Knowledge Coalition), which IPI is a member of. This year’s session was the most productive on the issues of exceptions and limitations. James Love (Knowledge Ecology International), a long-time observer at WIPO, described the outcome and the impact of the public interest community as the strongest since the conclusion of the Marrakech Treaty, which brought global copyright exceptions for the benefit of the blind and visually impaired.
Today, March 17, 2023, a symposium on law in the information society is taking place in the golden lecture hall of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič will present copyright aspects of artificial intelligence at the symposium.
The third day of the 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is intended for discussion on the topic of exceptions and limitations to copyright, especially in connection with the right to research.