Appeals Court Rules That GTA5 Didn't Infringe On Lindsay Lohan's Likeness Rights

Appeals Court Rules That GTA5 Didn't Infringe On Lindsay Lohan's Likeness Rights

6 years ago
Anonymous $gIi3-PxxKB

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180329/14024439527/appeals-court-rules-that-gta5-didnt-infringe-lindsay-lohans-likeness-rights.shtml

While there are absolutely far too many Techdirt posts featuring celebrity(?) Lindsay Lohan in these pages, most of them deal with one specific issue: her lawsuits against Take Two Interactive. At issue was a character Lohan insisted infringed on her likeness rights because the character is a drunk driver, public-fornicator, and has a backstory as a child actress. If Lindsay wants to insist that her own history lines up with that sort of backstory, I guess I won't argue with her, but the character has many other aspects that clearly have nothing to do with Lohan. Instead, the character is a parody of the sort the GTA series is famous for, with the target in this case being young celebrity stars and starlets. Coming along for the ride was Karen Gravano, who participated in a reality show about the wives of reported mobsters. Gravano sued over another character in the series with her filings essentially mirroring Lohan's. Take Two won both lawsuits, both on First Amendment grounds and due to the court finding that the characters were composite parodies, not representations of either Lohan or Gravano. Both plaintiffs appealed.

And now the New York Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Take Two again in both cases.

Appeals Court Rules That GTA5 Didn't Infringe On Lindsay Lohan's Likeness Rights

Apr 6, 2018, 4:16am UTC
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180329/14024439527/appeals-court-rules-that-gta5-didnt-infringe-lindsay-lohans-likeness-rights.shtml >While there are absolutely far too many Techdirt posts featuring celebrity(?) Lindsay Lohan in these pages, most of them deal with one specific issue: her lawsuits against Take Two Interactive. At issue was a character Lohan insisted infringed on her likeness rights because the character is a drunk driver, public-fornicator, and has a backstory as a child actress. If Lindsay wants to insist that her own history lines up with that sort of backstory, I guess I won't argue with her, but the character has many other aspects that clearly have nothing to do with Lohan. Instead, the character is a parody of the sort the GTA series is famous for, with the target in this case being young celebrity stars and starlets. Coming along for the ride was Karen Gravano, who participated in a reality show about the wives of reported mobsters. Gravano sued over another character in the series with her filings essentially mirroring Lohan's. Take Two won both lawsuits, both on First Amendment grounds and due to the court finding that the characters were composite parodies, not representations of either Lohan or Gravano. Both plaintiffs appealed. >And now the New York Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Take Two again in both cases.