By: Akiva Miller
The trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings of Casey Anthony, former murder suspect, has demanded to sell the rights to Casey Anthony’s life story as an asset in bankruptcy:
Individuals’ life stories are often treated like property, with book publishers and filmmakers commonly paying individuals for the rights to use their life stories, and litigation arising when works based on a person’s life story are created without their permission (example of such disputes can be found here and here).
The right to prevent others from using one’s life story for commercial or advertising purposes has been codified in some state laws, such as California Code § 3344 and New York State Civil Rights Law Sections § 50 and § 51.
This new case takes the logic that treats the “life story right” as a form of property is to a new extreme, and raises some difficult questions:
Firstly, it’s unclear what forcing the sale of a life story would actually entail. Presumably, a journalist is allowed to publish truthful facts about Ms. Anthony without any permission. The same is probably true for someone making a documentary film or investigative book about her life. So what would forcing the sale of a life story actually mean? Would Ms. Anthony be required to disclose all the details of her life to a biographer under penalty of law?
Secondly, would the sale of Ms. Anthony’s story mean for the rights of her mother, grandparents, and late daughter over their own life stories?
Thirdly, treating one’s life story as property in bankruptcy opens a the door to the forced sale of other personal rights that are sometimes bought and sold, such as the right to use one’s image and the right to keep one’s body concealed from view. Might Ms. Anthony be required to reveal her body to paparazzi photographers in order to help pay back her creditors?
As the court deliberates the issue, let’s hope it considers the implications for the privacy and dignity of debtors.