Natural Person’s Posthumous Image Protection and the Scope of Heir Discretion

Аннотация

While a person’s legal capacity ends up with death, his or her honor, dignity and privacy could continue to be protected. The emerging computer technologies expand the scope of human image manipulation by offering technical capabilities for a full-fledged reproduction of human face with its characteristic expression and movements. The difficulty is thus to delineate the virtual person and the real one for protecting both private and public interests. The article concludes that children, spouse and other heirs should not have the right to allow commercial use of the person’s image unless consented by him in his lifetime. It is argued the public interest to identify a natural person and separate him from a virtual double is to be protected. It is further demonstrated the likelihood of confusion grows with the progress of digital technologies, only to make a case for better protection of private interest that involves legitimate claims by family members to clear the decedent of any association with what he or she did not do. The interest of the third parties including consumers is likewise to be kept in mind, with a disclaimer to be given of someone’s image reproduced through the use of digital technologies in a movie or other complex product: since the offered digital product will not carry anything new, consumers have the right to know creative outcome from an average digital clone.