Blue-State Fasicism: NY Considers ‘Publicity’ Law That Could Harm Reporting On Politicians And Celebrities

“If enacted, this legislation would have significant impact on the expressive rights of individuals, activists, journalists, and companies around the United States.”

New York, the bluest of the blue corrupt Democrat states. It’s a means to protect the left elite and criminalize those who dissent. Slanderism, under the guise of journalism, is escalating — destroy, smear and defame those who dissent on the right.

Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Without it, these tyrants can wreak havoc unopposed, while their opponents are silenced. If speech that offends a group is outlawed, that group has absolute power, and a free society is destroyed. A group that cannot be criticized cannot be opposed. It can work its will no matter what it is, and no one will be able to say anything to stop it.

NY Considers ‘Publicity’ Law That Could Harm Reporting On Politicians And Celebrities

Kyle Perisic, Daily Caller, June 9, 2018:

New York is considering legislation that would dramatically change the way journalists report individual’s names, making names effectively the same as property, a digital right group says.

The bill would “dramatically expand New York’s right of publicity, making it a property right that can be passed on to your heirs – even if you aren’t a New York resident,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said on Friday in a public statement.

It would make it illegal to report on someone, like a celebrity or a politician according to EFF. (RELATED: EFF Defeats Patent Troll’s Podcast Lawsuit That Silenced Adam Carolla)

“Celebrities have brought right of publicity cases against movies, rap lyrics, magazine features, and computer games. The right of publicity has even been invoked to silence criticism of celebrities,” EFF claims.

“The right of publicity is an offshoot of state privacy law that gives a person the right to limit the public use of her name, likeness, or identity for commercial purposes. A limited version of this right makes sense—for example, allowing you to stop a company falsely claiming that you endorse its products,” EFF added. “But the right of publicity has been expanded in recent years thanks to misguided legislation and court decisions.”

“If enacted, this legislation would have significant impact on the expressive rights of individuals, activists, journalists, and companies around the United States,” EFF wrote in a public memo to the New York state assembly, asking lawmakers not to support the bill.

The bill, A08155, is sponsored by Democrat Joseph Morelle and first introduced in the state legislature on May 31, 2017.

It “[e]stablishes the right of privacy and the right of publicity for both living and deceased individuals; provides that an individual’s persona is the personal property of the individual and is freely transferable and descendible; provides for the registration with the department of state of such rights of a deceased individual; and that the use of a digital replica for purposes of trade within an expressive work shall be a violation,” according to the bill’s summary.

Morelle received negative press coverage on May 23 for making an “insensitive comment” about a rape case in 2001, for which he later apologized in a statement, Democrat and Chronicle reported.

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Mike

5 years ago

If speech or the written word can be PROVEN wrong then those who said or wrote it should be held accountable for their actions even the Press.

After all is was the Press which created the Spanish American war with their lies and got many people killed but were never held accountable for their act of treason.

Lies by Omission continue to this day and while OPINIONs can be protected speech, lying to the public with the full knowlege you are lying should be a punishable offense.

Just as yelling Fire in a crowded theater which is NOT on fire is not protected speech, feeding the public lies to keep the propaganda machine working should be considered treason with the appropriate punishment for treason. Maybe then the MSM will become the Watch Dogs the Founders intended.

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PollyWantACrackWhore

5 years ago

good to know that the self-absorbed scumbag leftist elites paid off enough legislators to go forward with the most anti-America POS bill since the Ohole reigned

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R. Arandas

5 years ago

More trying to police and restrict freedom of speech from the left.

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Suresh

5 years ago

Reply to  R. Arandas

sue them out of existence……….or they will continue their fasicst intimidation to shut down conservative free speech.

This is how patriots fightback and win http://tinyurl.com/y8yzso88

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felix1999

5 years ago

This is dangerous stuff. The liberal elite is protecting itself from being exposed for what they are. I’d bet it would NOT apply to Trump. It would be a one sided enforcement. Regardless of WHO it is, we want FREEDOM of the PRESS and FREEDOM of SPEECH!

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felix1999

5 years ago

It will probably happen in NY.
They are insane.

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Sing On

5 years ago

No surprise. Those athletes, actors, singers, models, etc have been making tons of money, most of which as disposable income, and lots from athletic scholarships, arts endowments, etc. In that sense they have the most spending power of the richest 1% because businessmen usually have their money tied up in shares. So the celebrities are not stupid and need to make sure we don’t realize that, hence all the fake news about how marginalized their demographic is.

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Poppey

5 years ago

I suppose we have to expect New York or fruit loop central as it’s known, to grab the dirty end of any straw going, but it would help clear the confusion in most peoples minds if those over there remembered that red is the colour of socialism and blue is for conservatives and somehow this accepted norm has reversed stateside.

One thing is for certain though, that city has more than enough bright lawyers to frustrate this initiative IF the will is there.

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Alleged-Comment

5 years ago

Give a guy a hammer and everything begins to look like a nail. The fact is many legislative bodies are made up of almost entirely of liars lawyers.

They churn out hundreds and hundreds of laws every year. That’s all they know. I know it sounds like some kind of retardation level, but it is true and a little tragic, and in some ways, very counter-productive and Hillaryous.

And don’t tell me about cops or agencies that are “law enforcement”. That’s even more Hillaryous.

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harbidoll

5 years ago

So, only they have right to “armed security”, & now right not to be “mean talked about”.Heres the “New Untouchables”. LOL

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Frank

5 years ago

I left that s***hole 25 years ago and have never been happier. There is something about living there that DRAINS the happiness out of a person.

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Janet Mohrman

5 years ago

The stupid left does not understand that if they want to get rid of our first amendment rights, their freedom of speech is gone too!!!!

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Midniterider

5 years ago

NY Nazi machinations.
Fascism is spelled “Fascism” NOT “Facisicism”.
Uh oh,does that make me a spelling Nazi?
Semper Fi
http://www.silverbulletgunoil.net .com

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Brenda Sinclair

5 years ago

“WE THE PEOPLE’ HAVE THE POWER OF OUR VOICES AND OUR VOTES TO VOTE OUT COME NOV 2018,THE ENTIRE LYING CORRUPT, TREASONOUS, DEMOCRAT PARTY, VOTE TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN AND TO END ALL CORRUPTION IN WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT END THE WASHINGTON PEDOPHILIA”

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Michael Jacobs

5 years ago

Sorry, this article and most of the commenters are going way overboard in what you think this proposed law can do, and labeling it bad. It will have ZERO effect on actual news reporting which is protected by the First Amendment and which no NY State law can override. The rights of publicity and privacy apply to exploitation of a NON-newsworthy but famous person’s likeness to market something or some idea, and all this law does is extend that right past the death of the person involved. It would not stop a newspapar from reporting that Albert Einstein liked to go around in slip-on shoes with no socks. But it WOULD stop a shoemaker from advertising that Einstein wore his brand of shoes.
Unless somebody can point to a more focused “harm” they think this law will cause, I’m leaning toward seeing the aghast response as either right-wing paranoia or (perhaps equally likely) knowing but deceptive anti-left propagandizing using a convenient and widely-misunderstood concept, privacy and publicity rights.

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