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Mob Wives Star's Suit Sparks New Look at NY Publicity Rights

By Elizabeth McNamara and Samuel M. Bayard
May 02, 2014

Earlier this year, former Mob Wives TV star Karen Gravano filed a right-of-publicity lawsuit against the makers of the Grand Theft Auto V video game, claiming they misappropriated her image and life story for a character in the popular video game. Gravano v. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., 151633/2014 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., N.Y. County). Media lawyers took notice because this case is one more in a string of recent cases raising a significant common question: To what extent does the law protect the rights of content creators ' writers, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists, photographers, and yes, video-game makers ' to draw on real-life individuals and events to create expressive works?

For years, this was a relatively settled issue particularly in New York and creators took comfort that they were largely protected from right-of-publicity claims. This status quo has been upended with a growing spate of successful suits against expressive works elsewhere in the country. Will Gravano's action introduce the same confusion to New York's relatively settled law?

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