The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday night approved legislation to regulate publicity rights in an effort to help the family of famed University of Arkansas football coach and athletic department director Frank Broyles.
The Senate's 22-2 vote backed a new proposal by Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale -- a day after Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed Woods' SB79, saying the bill was overbroad, vague and will have the effect of restricting free speech.
Woods told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday afternoon that his SB965 includes amendments agreed upon by the motion picture industry and photographers and would be called the Personal Rights Protection Act.
It is similar to an earlier Senate-approved version of SB79, he said.
The bill eliminates the language of an amendment, added at the behest of the NFL Players Association, Woods said. The amendment spawned opposition to that bill, he said.
Graham Catlett, a lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents television and film production companies, told the Senate committee that the association supports SB965.
"We think that the problems we recognized previously have been solved and this is basically the same bill that was passed by the Senate, plus some improvements that the photographers had asked for," Catlett said.
Under SB965 an individual has a property right in the use by any medium in any manner of his own name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness.
The property right would be freely transferable, assignable, licenseable and could be inherited. The property right wouldn't expire upon the death of the individual.
The bill includes a "Fair Use" section, which gives exceptions to the law for use in connection with a news, public affairs or sports broadcast; in a play, book, magazine, newspaper, musical composition, visual work, work of art, audiovisual work, or radio or television program if it is fictional or nonfictional entertainment or a dramatic, literary or musical work; a work of political, public interest or newsworthy value; or an advertisement or commercial announcement for any of these works.
After the Senate committee meeting, Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said the governor will need to review SB965 before taking a position on it.
Metro on 04/02/2015