Did the lyric, \u201cSo, I\u2019m tiptoein\u2019 to keep flowin\u2019\/I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan\u201d in musician Pitbull\u2019s song \u201cGive Me Everything\u201d violate the rights of actress Lindsay Lohan? Judge Denis Hurley in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York said \u201cno\u201d in a Memorandum and Order in February.<\/p>\n
Ms. Lohan sued Armando Christian Perez (better known as Pitbull), and Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. (better known as Ne-Yo), Nick Van De Wall (better known as Afrojack), and several others alleging that that the lyric fragment violated the New York State Civil Rights Law (the \u201cLaw\u201d), was \u201cunjust enrichment,\u201d and constituted intentional infliction of mental distress.<\/p>\n
New York State has a distinctive, even limited, approach to the right of privacy, codified in Section 50 and 51 of the Law. (Many other states have a common-law right of privacy that can be more expansive than New York State\u2019s statute.) Among other things, the Law says that it is a misdemeanor to \u201cuse for advertising purposes, or for the purposes of trade, the name, portrait or picture of any living person without having first obtained the written consent of such person\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
But court cases in New York have carved out an exemption from liability where the use of the name is as part of a work of art. That\u2019s what Judge Hurley found, saying the song \u201cis a protected work of art,\u201d so \u201cthe use of plaintiff\u2019s name therein does not violate\u201d the Law. Further, he found that the accused lyrics were not \u201cadvertising\u201d or \u201ctrade\u201d use under the Law, pointing out that the plaintiff\u2019s name \u201cdoes not promote a product or service.\u201d<\/p>\n
As to Ms. Lohan\u2019s claim that the lyrics constituted intentional infliction of emotional distress, Judge Hurley found Ms. Lohan\u2019s claim insufficient. Quoting from an earlier unrelated court opinion, Judge Hurley pointed out that that the \u201cissue must transcend the bounds of decency and be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.\u201d Similarly, the unjust enrichment claim was dismissed as inapplicable under the Law.<\/p>\n
No mean girls in sight, just one firm-minded federal judge. Ms. Lohan\u2019s case was dismissed. Further, the judge considered the alleged plagiarism in legal pleadings by one of Ms. Lohan\u2019s attorneys. Finally, the court declined to sanction Ms. Lohan for an allegedly frivolous lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Still, if the court didn\u2019t give Pitbull and the other defendants everything it asked for in the lawsuit, it came pretty close. Pitbull could sing another lyric from his song, \u201cGive Me Everything\u201d: \u201cAnd tonight, let’s enjoy life\/Pitbull, Nayer, Ne-Yo\/That’s right.”<\/p>\n
In February 2015, our colleague and friend, partner Mark Fischer, passed away. We have made his blog posts available in honor of both his nuanced and wide-ranging knowledge of intellectual property, new media and entertainment law and of his entertaining style. Please read our tribute to Mark<\/u><\/a> in the firm’s <\/em>Alumni Spotlight publication and his obituary<\/u><\/a> in the <\/em>Boston Globe.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did the lyric, \u201cSo, I\u2019m tiptoein\u2019 to keep flowin\u2019\/I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan\u201d in musician Pitbull\u2019s song \u201cGive Me Everything\u201d violate the rights of actress Lindsay Lohan? Judge Denis Hurley in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York said \u201cno\u201d in a Memorandum and Order in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[106,107,108,5,105,12],"ppma_author":[251],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-give-me-everything","tag-intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress","tag-lindsay-lohen","tag-mark-fischer","tag-pitbull","tag-privacy"],"authors":[{"term_id":251,"user_id":105,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mafischer","display_name":"Mark A. Fischer","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2014\/08\/fischermark-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/newmedialaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}