How can Personality Rights affect the work of UK museums?
• We are slow in the UK to recognize Personality/Privacy rights; • The recent case of Eddie Irvine, racing car driver, provided a good precedent. His image was being used without his consent, in order to endorse a company’s commercial activities. He sued and won the case since the use of his image in this way without his authorisation would infringe his rights and in particular be tantamount to “passing off”; • Museums should be aware of the above case, and also be cautious if they are using names of famous people on merchandise, since names can be trademarked; • Similarly the photography of people, or recording of voices etc, may be in breach of the Data Protection Act, since data would likely to have been processed in the capturing of their image, sound etc. In this case, consent is likely to be required; • The National Portrait Gallery has commented that people in portraits etc. are also beginning to assert their rights.
