美国公开权研究

在美国,公开权是于20世纪中叶从隐私权演变而来的一项财产权利。根据这项权利,一个人(主要是知名人物)可以控制对其形象的商业开发并从中获益。目前公开权无论是在理论上,还是在立法与司法实践上,均充满争议。司法界与学术界尚没有为公开权寻找到一种科学的理论基础,因此公开权仍是一种“尚没有得到证明”的权利。赋予知名人物以公开权,会削弱社会大众根据联邦宪法第一修正案所享有的言论自由,因此应将公开权的适用范围限制在尽可能小的程度。

A Study on the Right of Publicity in USA

In United States of America, the right of publicity is a kind of property right which had been developed from the right of privacy during the middle period of last century . According to this right , a person ( mainly a celebrity ) can control and profit from the commercial exploitation of his or her identities. But today the right of publicity is still disputable not only theoretically but also practically . The courts and scholars until now have not found a scientific rationale for this right, so the right of publicity is still a kind of right"not proven"yet. Providing celebrities with the right of publicity has the danger of limiting the public's right of free expression under the First Amendment of the US Constitution Due to this reason, the right of publicity should be as narrowly applied as possible.