Earlier this month, New Hampshire Governor Lynch vetoed a bill that would have protected the right to publicity after death. Although the editors of the Union Leader agreed with the veto, Matt Salinger, the son of reclusive and famous author J. D. Salinger, was understandably upset by the veto. In an op-ed on the veto, he writes:
The New Hampshire House and Senate, after many months of careful deliberation and very hard work, passed Senate Bill 175, concerning a person’s right of publicity. The right of publicity in general permits people to control the use of their identity, image and name for commercial purposes. Who can seriously dispute that a company should not be able to use my identity in the promotion of its product without permission?
If David Ortiz has not endorsed a certain baseball bat, then a company cannot use his image to promote it. So confident were the House and Senate of the quality and integrity of the final product of their labors, both chambers passed the bill on overwhelming, bipartisan voice votes. Unfortunately, Gov. Lynch chose to veto the bill. His reasons for doing so, in my opinion, reflect a fundamental lack of understanding of the issue itself.
Read more on The Union Leader.