Do you own the movie rights to your life?

lanfranco

As The Maven, member of the Intellectual Property Committee for a large professional organization, points out to me: you own your thoughts and ideas, as long as you put them on paper (and preferably copyright them), but you do not own the basic facts of your life. http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/relatedarticles/13722.php Jul 27 05, 6:32 PM

barker111

Although I am a little confused by the web link you have provided, The Maven is correct! As long as the facts are true, anyone can legally make a movie about you without your permission. The same holds true for newspapers who write about all sorts of people without gaining their permission. Why then do we often hear about studios buying movie rights to people's lives? One reason is to get the subject's cooperation. A better movie would be made if unknown aspects of the person's life are included; also, an agreement for the person not to cooperate with any other producers would allow them to hawk their movie as an exclusive. Finally, it would ensure the producers saftey from being sued for defamation if they did get any of the facts wrong. Jul 27 05, 7:29 PM

princess9

That seems sort of crude, no? I mean, as you are obviously the one committing the actions, shouldn't you be the one to own the fact that you did them? Jul 28 05, 3:13 PM