Creative life after death – or yes, you may control spinoffs from the grave

Michael Crichtonthe creator of “ER” and creator of “Jurassic Park,” died in 2008. Why is his estate suing Now Warner Bros.?

It seems that when Crichton agreed to develop the ER series, he reserved the proper to approve any sequels – or not. That right didn’t die with him.

Now that Warner is developing a brand new medical drama series, “The Pitt”, Crichton's estate claims that the brand new series is merely a reboot of “ER.” Although the brand new series has some similarities, including a number of the same actors, Warner denies all allegations.

The dispute is the newest in a series of high-profile court cases dropped at protect the estate of a now-deceased artist. And yes, even after death, artists can retain some control over their work.

As Law Professors We teach about trusts and estates. We pursue these cases so we will teach our students how authors, artists, and other creative people can preserve their legacies.

We are particularly fascinated about three situations involving celebrities because they show how complicated the protection of artists is – especially within the age of artificial intelligence.

Contracts provide everlasting control

When a creator sells a movie or television project, the client typically wants to accumulate rights to supply sequels, remakes and spinoffs related to the unique mental property. Selling so-called derivative rights can allow the creator to maximize the selling price and the client to exploit the creative idea to the total extent.

However, Crichton had a lot influence within the industry that he was in a position to negotiate more favorable contracts for a few of his most famous projects. In 1994, for instance, Crichton signed a contract with Warner Bros. that led to the production of NBC medical drama “ER” The series ran for 331 episodes and grossed over $3.5 billion.

Because of Crichton’s repute, he won a rarely awarded frozen rights Provision requiring his consent to Warner Bros. producing “sequels, remakes, spin-offs and/or other derivative works.”

This frozen rights agreement survived his death, as contractual rights generally do. On August 27, 2024, following Warner Bros.' recently announced production of a brand new medical drama starring Noah Wyle, the unique lead of ER, Crichton's widow Lawsuit filed The court invoked the frozen rights clause to challenge that “The Pitt” was an unauthorized reboot.

Copyright protection stays even after death

Copyright grants the creator of a piece exclusive rights to the Life of the creator plus an extra 70 years. After the creator's death, the copyright will be claimed by his estate.

For example, the estate of Isaac Hayes recently protested against using the late songwriter's song “Hold On, I'm Comin'” by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. According to a Federal lawsuit According to the lawsuit filed on August 21, 2024, the Trump team has “unlawfully performed” the song a minimum of 133 times since 2020, including on the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Hayes’ estate has called on Trump to stop using the song and is demanding $3 million in royalties for previous performances. On September 4 on the estate side in a preliminary ruling. The Hayes dispute shows how vital copyright protection is – and likewise how vital music is within the 2024 presidential election campaign, because Hayes' estate was not the just one to object to Trump's use of his music.

Another recent case involved “Vultures 1,” a brand new studio album that Ye – formerly often called Kanye West – and Ty Dolla Sign recorded together. According to the estate of Donna Summer, “Vultures 1” contained an “unauthorized interpolation” of Summer’s hit “I feel love.” Summer died 2012.

In a legal dispute Filed in February 2024, Summers' estate stated that it had rejected a request to license the song since it “did not want any association with West's controversial history.”

Despite this rejection, West and Dolla Sign “re-recorded the most important, memorable parts of Summer's iconic song almost word for word, used it as the hook for their own song, and released it, knowing full well that they had tried in vain to obtain legal permission from the rightful owners and had no right to do so.” after the criticism.

When the parties agreed In June 2024, Summers' estate attorney publicly stated that the agreement didn’t include permission to license the song.

Personal rights can protect an artist’s legacy

Personal rights enable people to forestall the industrial use of their identity, including their name and image, without that person’s consent. About 20 states protect this right after death. Tennessee has just expanded its protection to forestall unauthorized use of Voice and AI Applications with the so-called ELVIS performanceIt is the first state to do that.

Beginning of 2024 The estate of comedian George Carlin sues Creator of The “Dudesy” podcast for violating his personal rights by publishing an AI-generated episode entitled “George Carlin Resurrected”.

Carlin is dead for greater than 15 years. A deepfake image of Carlin was teased on social media to advertise an hour-long video titled “George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead (2024).” According to the criticismThe video “used an AI-generated soundalike of George Carlin to read and perform an AI-generated script written in Carlin's humor style.”

The property reached an agreement in April 2024, ordering the podcasters to “permanently remove the video from the internet” and stop using Carlin's identity without the estate's consent.

Another recent case shows how estate planning can play a critical role in how beneficiaries use their personality rights after the celebrity's death. When legendary recording artist Little Richard died in 2020, his will gave priceless mental property rights to nine people in a special provision that encouraged them to “work together … to reach an agreement” regarding his postmortem publicity rights. Once they had a plan in place, any beneficiary who disrupted the plan would “forfeit” their right on money from the plan.

Little Richard's brother Peyton Penniman wrote a letter to the client who had agreed to buy Little Richard's publishing rights, during which Peyton suggested that the property was being “robbed.” The next day, the client, who had tentatively agreed on a purchase order price, backed out of the deal. Earlier this month, a Tennessee court ruled that found that Peyton's actions were detrimental to the estateand consequently lost his rights.

Who owns the copyright after a deceased celebrity, or who stands to cash in on that celebrity's images, impacts their legacy, nevertheless it also implies that those individuals may give you the chance to regulate what the remainder of us see and listen to, even from the grave.

As AI empowers each of us to create content, we will learn vital lessons about what we will – and can’t – do relating to nurturing our own legacy.