In a ruling with major implications, a California appellate court upheld the right of video game makers to create a character with traits much like a real-life singer's. In Kirby v. Sega of America, the court ruled that the character had too many dissimilarities to Kieren Kirby, or "Lady Miss Kier," of the band Deee-Lite, based on a test used in prior California Supreme Court cases. Could conflicting decisions in similar right-of-publicity cases in other states push the issue to the Supreme Court?
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Calif. Court: Video Game Makers Can Base Characters on Real People
The National Law Journal
December 4, 2006
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