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If a cartoon draws a likeness to a celebrity and actually uses that celebrity's name, can the cartoon creators be sued by the celebrity?

Question #64672. Asked by pjotr.
Last updated Oct 01 2022.

Related Trivia Topics: Television   Celebrities  
mementoflash
Answer has 1 vote
mementoflash

Answer has 1 vote.
Not in the US, freedom of the press and freedom of speech protects people to make cartoons of whoever they wish.

Apr 16 2006, 7:16 AM
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rlaj
Answer has 3 votes
Currently Best Answer
rlaj
21 year member
244 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, was sued by Jerry Falwell, a religious leader, for a parody of Falwell having sex with his mother. It went all the way to the supreme court and in a 8-0 decision, Flynt won under the 1st amemdment.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell

Apr 16 2006, 9:23 AM
xfacilitatorx
Answer has 3 votes
xfacilitatorx

Answer has 3 votes.
ANYONE can be sued for ANYTHING in the USA. It is a question of winning that the laws support or dismiss.

And yes defamation of character does weigh on this scenario.

Many celebrities have sued tabloids and won for unbecoming stories about them.

Many celebrities have stopped stories from running by the hand of the court.

I. What Is Defamation?

California law defines "defamation" as either "libel" or "slander".

Libel involves statements expressed in writing, picture or fixedrepresentation. Pursuant
to statute (California Civil Code Section 46):

===============================
Slander is a false and unprivileged publication, orally uttered, andalso communications by radio or any mechanical or other means which:

1.Charges any person with crime, or with having been indicted,convicted, or punished for crime;

2.Imputes in him the present existence of an infectious, contagious, or loathsome disease;

3.Tends directly to injure him in respect to his office, profession,trade or business, either by imputing to him general disqualification in those respects which the office or other occupation peculiarly requires, or by imputing something with reference to his office, profession, trade, or business that has a natural tendency to lessen its profits;

4.Imputes to him impotence or a want of chasity; or

5.Which, by natural consequence, causes actual damage.




link http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=244096


link http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=244096

Apr 16 2006, 11:14 AM
gmackematix
Answer has 0 votes
gmackematix
21 year member
3194 replies

Answer has 0 votes.
In the cartoon "South Park", Trey Parker and Matt Stone frequently use likenesses of celebrities with their actual names portrayed in a very unflattering light doing things they couldn't possibly have done.

However, they escape lawsuits because parody and satire in the US fall under a category called "Fair use".
link https://www.cotmanip.com/articles/fair-use-parody

Oct 01 2022, 1:01 AM
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