On Sun, 11 Mar 2001, Tavia wrote:
Cheryl wrote in response to me:
I also believe (and will remain in this belief) that to use the likeness of any individual in any area, without their actual consent is a gross distortion of civil liberties and these are my main points of contention.
In terms of pictures, I don't personally see an awful lot of difference between, say, (1) someone putting a framegrab of Avon on their desktop; (2) someone using the framegrab to draw a likeness of Avon which they put on their wall; (3) someone passing said likeness of Avon round their circle of friends; and (4) someone selling 50 copies (I should be so lucky!!) of a non-profit-making fanzine containing said likeness of Avon.
In all cases the picture is of Avon, not of the actor. In no case is Mr Darrow harmed by the picture. In no case is any money made out of the situation. In legal terms, I would guess all are technically illegal. In fact, I believe that fanzines in general contravene (UK) copyright law merely by using the character names/situation.
I'm not at all comfortable with this argument. I don't think I would be terribly happy if I found that people were selling drawings depicting me in questionable circumstances (unlikely as that may be). If those people tried to tell me that it was OK because they weren't pictures of me at all, but of Caliban, or Macbeth, or Panfilo, I don't think it would cut much ice.
Just because you get up on a stage, or in front of a camera, doesn't mean you sign away your rights as a private human being. Duplicating a framegrab is simply making an unauthorised copy of a performance: unlawful, but in this context hardly a great crime. Using that likeness to create pictures of that person doing a performance which they would most likely be unwilling to do is overstepping the mark.
If someone had done a drawing of me playing Caliban, I wouldn't mind: indeed I'd probably be terribly flattered that someone thought it worth making such a picture. If I'd found people trading in pictures of me fellating Gary Mooney, I'd be upset and offended. A conversation with one of the vendors, in which they insisted that I had nothing to be annoyed about because it wasn't me and Gary at all, it was Caliban and Stephano, would most likely have ended with one of us in hospital and the other in prison.
If particular perfomers are cool about their likeness being used any old way, fair enough. That's their choice. Trying to sidestep the moral issue by invoking this metaphysical distinction between performer and character really doesn't work, though.
I'm not sure exactly what sorts of fan art you're thinking of, Tavia, and I'm not trying to beat you up about your views. However, I do think there's a moral line which some fans -- not necessarily yourself -- ignore too casually.
Iain