Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. Gary Saderup, Inc.

*391 Opinion

A California statute grants the right of publicity to specified successors in interest of deceased celebrities, prohibiting any other person from using a celebrity’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness for commercial purposes without the consent of such successors. (Former Civ. Code, § 990.) 1 The United States Constitution prohibits the states from abridging, among other fundamental rights, freedom of speech. (U.S. Const., 1st and 14th Amends.) In the case at bar we resolve a conflict between these two provisions. The Court of Appeal concluded that the lithographs and silkscreened T-shirts in question here received no First Amendment protection simply because they were reproductions rather than original works of art. As will appear, this was error: reproductions are equally entitled to First Amendment protection. We formulate instead what is essentially a balancing test between the First Amendment and the right of publicity based on whether the work in question adds significant creative elements so as to be transformed into something more than a mere celebrity likeness or imitation. Applying this test to the present case, we conclude that there are no such creative elements here and that the right of publicity prevails. On this basis, we will affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

I. The Statute

In this state the right of publicity is both a statutory and a common law right. The statutory right originated in Civil Code section 3344 (hereafter section 3344), enacted in 1971, authorizing recovery of damages by any living person whose name, photograph, or likeness has been used for commercial purposes without his or her consent. Eight years later, in Lugosi v. Universal Pictures (1979) 25 Cal.3d 813 [160 Cal.Rptr. 323, 603 P.2d 425, 10 A.L.R.4th 1150] (Lugosi), we also recognized a common law right of publicity, which the statute was said to complement (id. at p. 818 and fn. 6). But because the common law right was derived from the law of privacy, 2 we held in Lugosi that the cause of action did not survive the death of the person whose identity was exploited and was not descendible to his or her heirs or assignees. (25 Cal.3d at pp. 819-821.)

In 1984 the Legislature enacted an additional measure on the subject, creating a second statutory right of publicity that was descendible to the *392 heirs and assignees of deceased persons. (Stats. 1984, ch. 1704, § 1, p. 6169.) The statute was evidently modeled on section 3344: many of the key provisions of the two statutory schemes were identical. The 1984 measure is the statute in issue in the case at bar. At the time of trial and while the appeal was pending before the Court of Appeal, the statute was numbered section 990 of the Civil Code.

Section 990 declares broadly that “Any person who uses a deceased personality’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods, or services, without prior consent from the person or persons specified in subdivision (c), shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured as a result thereof.” (Id., subd. (a).) The amount recoverable includes “any profits from the unauthorized use,” as well as punitive damages, attorney fees, and costs. (Ibid.)

The statute defines “deceased personality” as a person “whose name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness has commercial value at the time of his or her death,” whether or not the person actually used any of those features for commercial purposes while alive. (§ 990, subd. (h).)

The statute further declares that “The rights recognized under this section are property rights” that are transferable before or after the personality dies, by contract or by trust or will. (§ 990, subd. (b).) Consent to use the deceased personality’s name, voice, photograph, etc., must be obtained from such a transferee or, if there is none, from certain described survivors of the personality. (Id., subds. (c), (d).) Any person claiming to be such a transferee or survivor must register the claim with the Secretary of State before recovering damages. (Id., subd. (f).)

The right to require consent under the statute terminates if there is neither transferee nor survivor (§ 990, subd. (e)), or 50 years after the personality dies (id., subd. (g)). 3

The statute provides a number of exemptions from the requirement of consent to use. Thus a use “in connection with any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign” does not require consent. (§ 990, subd. (j).) Use in a “commercial medium” does not require consent solely because the material is commercially sponsored or contains *393 paid advertising; “Rather it shall be a question of fact whether or not the use . . . was so directly connected with” the sponsorship or advertising that it requires consent. (Id., subd. (k).) Finally, subdivision (n) provides that “[a] play, book, magazine, newspaper, musical composition, film, radio or television program” (id., subd. (n)(l)), work of “political or newsworthy value” (id., subd. (n)(2)), “[s]ingle and original works of fine art” (id., subd. (n)(3)), or “[a]n advertisement or commercial announcement” for the above works (id., subd. (n)(4)) are all exempt from the provisions of the statute.

II. Facts

Plaintiff Comedy III Productions, Inc. (hereafter Comedy III), brought this action against defendants Gary Saderup and Gary Saderup, Inc. (hereafter collectively Saderup), seeking damages and injunctive relief for violation of section 990 arid related business torts. 4 The parties waived the right to jury trial and the right to put on evidence, and submitted the case for decision on the following stipulated facts:

Comedy III is the registered owner of all rights to the former comedy act known as The Three Stooges, who are deceased personalities within the meaning of the statute.

Saderup is an artist with over 25 years’ experience in making charcoal drawings of celebrities. These drawings are used to create lithographic and silkscreen masters, which in turn are used to produce multiple reproductions in the form, respectively, of lithographic prints and silkscreened images on T-shirts. Saderup creates the original drawings and is actively involved in the ensuing lithographic and silkscreening processes.

Without securing Comedy Ill’s consent, Saderup sold lithographs and T-shirts bearing a likeness of The Three Stooges reproduced from a charcoal drawing he had made. These lithographs and T-shirts did not constitute an advertisement, endorsement, or sponsorship of any product.

Saderup’s profits from the sale of unlicensed lithographs and T-shirts bearing a likeness of The Three Stooges was $75,000 and Comedy Ill’s reasonable attorney fees were $150,000.

On these stipulated facts the court found for Comedy III and entered judgment against Saderup awarding damages of $75,000 and attorney fees of *394 $150,000 plus costs. The court also issued a permanent injunction restraining Saderup from violating the statute by use of any likeness of The Three Stooges in lithographs, T-shirts, “or any other medium by which [Saderup’s] art work may be sold or marketed.” The injunction further prohibited Saderup from “Creating, producing, reproducing, copying, distributing, selling or exhibiting any lithographs, prints, posters, t-shirts, buttons, or other goods, products or merchandise of any kind, bearing the photograph, image, face, symbols, trademarks, likeness, name, voice or signature of The Three Stooges or any of the individual members of The Three Stooges.” The sole exception to this broad prohibition was Saderup’s original charcoal drawing from which the reproductions at issue were made.

Saderup appealed. The Court of Appeal modified the judgment by striking the injunction. The court reasoned that Comedy HI had not proved a likelihood of continued violation of the statute, and that the wording of the injunction was overbroad because it exceeded the terms of the statute and because it “could extend to matters and conduct protected by the First Amendment . . . .”

The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment as thus modified, however, upholding the award of damages, attorney fees, and costs. In so doing, it rejected Saderup’s contentions that his conduct (1) did not violate the terms of the statute, and (2) in any event was protected by the constitutional guaranty of freedom of speech.

We granted review to address these two issues. 5

III. Discussion

A. The Statutory Issue

Saderup contends the statute applies only to uses of a deceased personality’s name, voice, photograph, etc., for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the purchase of, products or services. He then stresses the stipulated fact (and subsequent finding) that the lithographs and T-shirts at issue in this case did not constitute an advertisement, endorsement, or sponsorship of any product. He concludes the statute therefore does not apply in the case at bar. As will appear, the major premise of his argument— his construction of the statute—is unpersuasive.

*395 As noted above, the statute makes liable any person who, without consent, uses a deceased personality’s name, voice, photograph, etc., “in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods, or services . . . .” (§ 990, subd. (a), italics added.) Saderup’s construction reads the emphasized phrase out of the statute. Yet the Legislature deliberately inserted it, as the following sequence of events demonstrates. When first enacted in 1971, section 3344—the companion statute applying to living personalities—contained no such phrase: the statute simply made liable any person who uses another’s identity “in any manner, for purposes of advertising products, merchandise, goods or services, or for purposes of solicitation of’ such purchases. (Stats. 1971, ch. 1595, § 1, p. 3426.) The Legislature inserted the phrase, “on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or,” when it amended section 3344 in 1984. (Stats. 1984, ch. 1704, § 2, p. 6172.) And in the very same legislation, the Legislature adopted section 990 and inserted the identical phrase in that statute as well. (Stats. 1984, ch. 1704, § 1, p. 6169.)

We therefore give effect to the plain meaning of the statute: it makes liable any person who, without consent, uses a deceased personality’s name, voice, photograph, etc., either (1) “on or in” a product, or (2) in “advertising or selling” a product. The two uses are not synonymous: in the apt example given by the Court of Appeal, there is an obvious difference between “placing a celebrity’s name on a ‘special edition’ of a vehicle, and using that name in a commercial to endorse or tout the same or another vehicle.”

Applying this construction of the statute to the facts at hand, we agree with the Court of Appeal that Saderup sold more than just the incorporeal likeness of The Three Stooges. Saderup’s lithographic prints of The Three Stooges are themselves tangible personal property, consisting of paper and ink, made as products to be sold and displayed on walls like similar graphic art. Saderup’s T-shirts are likewise tangible personal property, consisting of fabric and ink, made as products to be sold and worn on the body like similar garments. By producing and selling such lithographs and T-shirts, Saderup thus used the likeness of The Three Stooges “on . . . products, merchandise, or goods” within the meaning of the statute. 6

Saderup contends this construction is inconsistent with precedent, but the cases on which he relies are readily distinguishable. Eastwood v. Superior *396 Court (1983) 149 Cal.App.3d 409, 417 [198 Cal.Rptr. 342], involving section 3344, was decided when that statute prohibited the use of another’s identity only for advertising purposes. And although Newcombe v. Adolf Coors Co. (9th Cir. 1998) 157 F.3d 686 was decided after the Legislature inserted the phrase, “on or in products, merchandise, or goods,” into section 3344, the case is not authority for reading that phrase out of the statute or section 990: because the sole issue in the case was the unauthorized use of a celebrity’s likeness in a beer advertisement, the court quoted only those portions of section 3344 dealing with advertisements. (Newcombe, at p. 692.)

B. The Constitutional Issue

Saderup next contends that enforcement of the judgment against him violates his right of free speech and expression under the First Amendment. He raises a difficult issue, which we address below.

The right of publicity is often invoked in the context of commercial speech when the appropriation of a celebrity likeness creates a false and misleading impression that the celebrity is endorsing a product. (See Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc. (9th Cir. 1992) 978 F.2d 1093; Midler v. Ford Motor Co. (9th Cir. 1988) 849 F.2d 460.) Because the First Amendment does not protect false and misleading commercial speech (Central Hudson Gas & Elec. v. Public Serv. Comm’n (1980) 447 U.S. 557, 563-564 [100 S.Ct. 2343, 2350, 65 L.Ed.2d 341]), and because even nonmisleading commercial speech is generally subject to somewhat lesser First Amendment protection (Central Hudson, at p. 566 [100 S.Ct. at p. 2351]), the right of publicity may often trump the right of advertisers to make use of celebrity figures.

But the present case does not concern commercial speech. As the trial court found, Saderup’s portraits of The Three Stooges are expressive works and not an advertisement for or endorsement of a product. Although his work was done for financial gain, “[t]he First Amendment is not limited to those who publish without charge. . . . [An expressive activity] does not lose its constitutional protection because it is undertaken for profit.” (Guglielmi v. Spelling-Goldberg Productions (1979) 25 Cal.3d 860, 868 [160 Cal.Rptr. 352, 603 P.2d 454] (conc. opn. of Bird, C. J.) (Guglielmi).) 7

The tension between the right of publicity and the First Amendment is highlighted by recalling the two distinct, commonly acknowledged purposes *397 of the latter. First, “ ‘to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas’ and to repel efforts to limit the ‘ “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” debate on public issues.’ ” (Guglielmi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at p. 866.) Second, to foster a “fundamental respect for individual development and self-realization. The right to self-expression is inherent in any political system which respects individual dignity. Each speaker must be free of government restraint regardless of the nature or manner of the views expressed unless there is a compelling reason to the contrary.” (Ibid., fn. omitted; see also Emerson, The System of Freedom of Expression (1970) pp. 6-7.)

The right of publicity has a potential for frustrating the fulfillment of both these purposes. Because celebrities take on public meaning, the appropriation of their likenesses may have important uses in uninhibited debate on public issues, particularly debates about culture and values. And because celebrities take on personal meanings to many individuals in the society, the creative appropriation of celebrity images can be an important avenue of individual expression. As one commentator has stated; “Entertainment and sports celebrities are the leading players in our Public Drama. We tell tales, both tall and cautionary, about them. We monitor their comings and goings, their missteps and heartbreaks. We copy their mannerisms, their styles, their modes of conversation and of consumption. Whether or not celebrities are ‘the chief agents of moral change in the United States,’ they certainly are widely used—far more than are institutionally anchored elites—to symbolize individual aspirations, group identities, and cultural values. Their images are thus important expressive and communicative resources: the peculiar, yet familiar idiom in which we conduct a fair portion of our cultural business and everyday conversation.” (Madow, Private Ownership of Public Image: Popular Culture and Publicity Rights (1993) 81 Cal. L.Rev. 125, 128 (Madow), italics and fns. omitted.)

As Madow further points out, the very importance of celebrities in society means that the right of publicity has the potential of censoring significant expression by suppressing alternative versions of celebrity images that are iconoclastic, irreverent, or otherwise attempt to redefine the celebrity’s meaning. (Madow, supra, 81 Cal. L.Rev. at pp. 143-145; see also Coombe, Author/izing the Celebrity: Publicity Rights, Postmodern Politics, and Unauthorized Genders (1992) 10 Cardozo Arts and Ent. L.J. 365, 377-388.) A majority of this court recognized as much in Guglielmi: “The right of publicity derived from public prominence does not confer a shield to ward off caricature, parody and satire. Rather, prominence invites creative comment.” (Guglielmi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at p. 869.)

*398 For similar reasons, speech about public figures is accorded heightened First Amendment protection in defamation law. As the United States Supreme Court held in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) 418 U.S. 323 [94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789], public figures may prevail in a libel action only if they prove that the defendant’s defamatory statements were made with actual malice, i.e., actual knowledge of falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth, whereas private figures need prove only negligence. (Id. at pp. 328, 342, 344-345 [94 S.Ct. at pp. 3001, 3008, 3009-3010].) The rationale for such differential treatment is, first, that the public figure has greater access to the media and therefore greater opportunity to rebut defamatory statements, and second, that those who have become public figures have done so voluntarily and therefore “invite attention and comment.” (Id. at pp. 344-345 [94 S.Ct. at p. 3010].) Giving broad scope to the right of publicity has the potential of allowing a celebrity to accomplish through the vigorous exercise of that right the censorship of unflattering commentary that cannot be constitutionally accomplished through defamation actions.

Nor do Saderup’s creations lose their constitutional protections because they are for purposes of entertaining rather than informing. As Chief Justice Bird stated in Guglielmi, invoking the dual purpose of the First Amendment: “Our courts have often observed that entertainment is entitled to the same constitutional protection as the exposition of ideas. That conclusion rests on two propositions. First, ‘[t]he line between informing and entertaining is too elusive for the protection of the basic right. Everyone is familiar with instances of propaganda through fiction. What is one man’s amusement, teaches another doctrine.’ ” (Guglielmi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at p. 867, fn. omitted.) “Second, entertainment, as a mode of self-expression, is entitled to constitutional protection irrespective of its contribution to the marketplace of ideas. ‘For expression is an integral part of the development of ideas, of mental exploration and of the affirmation of self. The power to realize his potentiality as a human being begins at this point and must extend at least this far if the whole nature of man is not to be thwarted.’ ” (Ibid.)

Nor does the fact that expression takes a form of nonverbal, visual representation remove it from the ambit of First Amendment protection. In Bery v. City of New York (2d Cir. 1996) 97 F.3d 689, the court overturned an ordinance requiring visual artists—painters, printers, photographers, sculptors, etc.—to obtain licenses to sell their work in public places, but exempted the vendors of books, newspapers or other written matter. As the court stated: “Both the [district] court and the City demonstrate an unduly restricted view of the First Amendment and of visual art itself. Such myopic vision not only overlooks case law central to First Amendment jurisprudence *399 but fundamentally misperceives the essence of visual communication and artistic expression. Visual art is as wide ranging in its depiction of ideas, concepts and emotions as any book, treatise, pamphlet or other writing, and is similarly entitled to full First Amendment protection. . . . One cannot look at Winslow Homer’s paintings on the Civil War without seeing, in his depictions of the boredom and hardship of the individual soldier, expressions of anti-war sentiments, the idea that war is not heroic.” (Id. at p. 695.)

Moreover, the United States Supreme Court has made it clear that a work of art is protected by the First Amendment even if it conveys no discernable message: “[A] narrow, succinctly articulable message is not a condition of constitutional protection, which if confined to expressions conveying a ‘particularized message,’ [citation], would never reach the unquestionably shielded painting of Jackson Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll.” (Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc. (1995) 515 U.S. 557, 569 [115 S.Ct. 2338, 2345, 132 L.Ed.2d 487].)

Nor does the fact that Saderup’s art appears in large part on a less conventional avenue of communications, T-shirts, result in reduced First Amendment protection. As Judge Posner stated in the case of a defendant who sold T-shirts advocating the legalization of marijuana, “its T-shirts . . . are to [the seller] what the New York Times is to the Sulzbergers and the Ochs—the vehicle of her ideas and opinions.” (Ayres v. City of Chicago (7th Cir. 1997) 125 F.3d 1010, 1017; see also Cohen v. California (1971) 403 U.S. 15 [91 S.Ct. 1780, 29 L.Ed.2d 284] [jacket with words “Fuck the Draft” on the back is protected speech].) First Amendment doctrine does not disfavor nontraditional media of expression.

But having recognized the high degree of First Amendment protection for noncommercial speech about celebrities, we need not conclude that all expression that trenches on the right of publicity receives such protection. The right of publicity, like copyright, protects a form of intellectual property that society deems to have some social utility. “Often considerable money, time and energy are needed to develop one’s prominence in a particular field. Years of labor may be required before one’s skill, reputation, notoriety or virtues are sufficiently developed to permit an economic return through some medium of commercial promotion. [Citations.] For some, the investment may eventually create considerable commercial value in one’s identity.” (Lugosi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at pp. 834-835 (dis. opn. of Bird, C. J.).)

The present case exemplifies this kind of creative labor. Moe and Jerome (Curly) Howard and Larry Fein fashioned personae collectively known as *400 The Three Stooges, first in vaudeville and later in movie shorts, over a period extending from the 1920’s to the 1940’s. (See Fleming, The Three Stooges: Amalgamated Morons to American Icons (1999) pp. 10-46.) The three comic characters they created and whose names they shared—Larry, Moe, and Curly—possess a kind of mythic status in our culture. Their journey from ordinary vaudeville performers to the heights (or depths) of slapstick comic celebrity was long and arduous. (Ibid.) Their brand of physical humor—the nimble, comically stylized violence, the “nyuk-nyuks” and “whoop-whoop-whoops,” eye-pokes, slaps and head conks (see, e.g., Three Little Pigskins (Columbia Pictures 1934), Hoi Polloi (Columbia Pictures 1935), A Gem of a Jam (Columbia Pictures 1943), Micro-Phonies (Columbia Pictures 1945))—created a distinct comedic trademark. Through their talent and labor, they joined the relatively small group of actors who constructed identifiable, recurrent comic personalities that they brought to the many parts they were scripted to play. “Groucho Marx just being Groucho Marx, with his moustache, cigar, slouch and leer, cannot be exploited by others. Red Skelton’s variety of self-devised roles would appear to be protectible, as would the unique personal creations of Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and others of that genre. . . . ‘[W]e deal here with actors portraying themselves and developing their own characters.’ ” (Lugosi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at pp. 825-826 (cone. opn. of Mosk, J.).)

In sum, society may recognize, as the Legislature has done here, that a celebrity’s heirs and assigns have a legitimate protectible interest in exploiting the value to be obtained from merchandising the celebrity’s image, whether that interest be conceived as a kind of natural property right or as an incentive for encouraging creative work. (See 1 McCarthy, The Rights of Publicity and Privacy (2d ed. 2000) §§ 22-2.1, pp. 2-1 to 2-22 (McCarthy).) Although critics have questioned whether the right of publicity truly serves any social purpose (see, e.g., Madow, supra, 81 Cal. L.Rev. at pp. 178-238), there is no question that the Legislature has a rational basis for permitting celebrities and their heirs to control the commercial exploitation of the celebrity’s likeness.

Although surprisingly few courts have considered in any depth the means of reconciling the right of publicity and the First Amendment, we follow those that have in concluding that depictions of celebrities amounting to little more than the appropriation of the celebrity’s economic value are not protected expression under the First Amendment. We begin with Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977) 433 U.S. 562, 576 [97 S.Ct. 2849, 2857-2858, 53 L.Ed.2d 965] (Zacchini), the only United States Supreme Court case to directly address the right of publicity. Zacchini, the performer *401 of a human cannonball act, sued a television station that had videotaped and broadcast his entire performance without his consent. The court held the First Amendment did not protect the television station against a right of publicity claim under Ohio common law. In explaining why the enforcement of the right of publicity in this case would not violate the First Amendment, the court stated: “ ‘[T]he rationale for [protecting the right of publicity] is the straightforward one of preventing unjust enrichment by the theft of good will. No social purpose is served by having the defendant get free some aspect of the plaintiff that would have market value and for which he would normally pay.’ ” (Id. at p. 576 [97 S.Ct. at p. 2857].) The court also rejected the notion that federal copyright or patent law preempted this type of state law protection of intellectual property: “[Copyright and patent] laws perhaps regard the ‘reward to the owner [as] a secondary consideration,’ [citation], but they were ‘intended definitely to grant valuable, enforceable rights’ in order to afford greater encouragement to the production of works of benefit to the public. [Citation.] The Constitution does not prevent Ohio from making a similar choice here in deciding to protect the entertainer’s incentive in order to encourage the production of this type of work.” (Id. at p. 577 [97 S.Ct. at p. 2858].)

To be sure, Zacchini was not an ordinary right of publicity case: the defendant television station had appropriated the plaintiff’s entire act, a species of common law copyright violation. Nonetheless, two principles enunciated in Zacchini apply to this case: (1) state law may validly safeguard forms of intellectual property not covered under federal copyright and patent law as a means of protecting the fruits of a performing artist’s labor; and (2) the state’s interest in preventing the outright misappropriation of such intellectual property by others is not automatically trumped by the interest in free expression or dissemination of information; rather, as in the case of defamation, the state law interest and the interest in free expression must be balanced, according to the relative importance of the interests at stake. (See Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., supra, 418 U.S. at pp. 347-350 [94 S.Ct. at pp. 3010-3012].)

Guglielmi adopted a similar balancing approach. The purported heir of Rudolph Valentino filed suit against the makers of a fictional film based on the latter’s life. Guglielmi concluded that the First Amendment protection of entertainment superseded any right of publicity. This was in contrast to the companion Lugosi case, in which Chief Justice Bird concluded in her dissenting opinion that there may be an enforceable right of publicity that would prevent the merchandising of Count Dracula using the likeness of Bela Lugosi, with whom that role was identified. (Lugosi, supra, 25 Cal.3d *402 at pp. 848-849 (dis. opn. of Bird, C. J.).) Guglielmi proposed a balancing test to distinguish protected from unprotected appropriation of celebrity likenesses: “an action for infringement of the right of publicity can be maintained only if the proprietary interests at issue clearly outweigh the value of free expression in this context.” (Guglielmi, supra, 25 Cal.3d at p. 871.)

In Estate of Presley v. Russen (D.N.J. 1981) 513 F.Supp. 1339 (Russen), the court considered a New Jersey common law right of publicity claim by Elvis Presley’s heirs against an impersonator who performed The Big El Show. The court implicitly used a balancing test similar to the one proposed in Guglielmi. Acknowledging that the First Amendment protects entertainment speech, the court nonetheless rejected that constitutional defense. “[Ejntertainment that is merely a copy or imitation, even if skillfully and accurately carried out, does not really have its own creative component and does not have a significant value as pure entertainment. As one authority has emphasized: ‘The public interest in entertainment will support the sporadic, occasional and good-faith imitation of a famous person to achieve humor, to effect criticism or to season a particular episode, but it does not give a privilege to appropriate another’s valuable attributes on a continuing basis as one’s own without the consent of the other.’ ” (Russen, supra, 513 F.Supp. at pp. 1359-1360.) Acknowledging also that the show had some informational value, preserving a live Elvis Presley act for posterity, the court nonetheless stated: “This recognition that defendant’s production has some value does not diminish our conclusion that the primary purpose of defendant’s activity is to appropriate the commercial value of the likeness of Elvis Presley.” (Id. at p. 1360.)

On the other side of the equation, the court recognized that the Elvis impersonation, as in Zacchini, represented “ ‘what may be the strongest case for a “right of publicity”—involving, not the appropriation of an entertainer’s reputation to enhance the attractiveness of a commercial product, but the appropriation of the very activity by which the entertainer acquired his reputation in the first place.’” (Russen, supra, 513 F.Supp. at p. 1361, quoting Zacchini, supra, 433 U.S. at p. 576 [97 S.Ct. at p. 2858].) Thus, in balancing the considerable right of publicity interests with the minimal expressive or informational value of the speech in question, the Russen court concluded that the Presley estate’s request for injunctive relief would likely prevail on the merits. (Russen, at p. 1361; see also Factors etc. Inc. v. Creative Card Co. (S.D.N.Y. 1977) 444 F.Supp. 279 [poster of Elvis Presley labeled “In Memory . . . 1935-1977” did not possess sufficient newsworthiness to be eligible for First Amendment protection].)

In Groucho Marx Productions, Inc. v. Day & Night Co. (S.D.N.Y. 1981) 523 F.Supp. 485, reversed on other grounds (2d Cir. 1982) 689 F.2d 317, the *403 court considered a right of publicity challenge to a new play featuring characters resembling the Marx Brothers. The court found in favor of the Marx Brothers’ heirs, rejecting a First Amendment defense. In analyzing that defense, the court posed a dichotomy between “works . . . designed primarily to promote the dissemination of thoughts, ideas or information through news or fictionalization,” which would receive First Amendment protection, and “use of the celebrity’s name or likeness . . . largely for commercial purposes, such as the sale of merchandise,” in which the right of publicity would prevail. (523 F.Supp. at p. 492.) In creating this dichotomy, the court did not appear to give due consideration to forms of creative expression protected by the First Amendment that cannot be categorized as ideas or information. Moreover, the court, borrowing from certain copyright cases, seemed to believe that the validity of the First Amendment defense turned on whether the play was a parody, without explaining why other forms of creative appropriation, such as using established characters in new theatrical works to advance various creative objectives, were not protected by the First Amendment. 8 Nonetheless, the case is in line with Zacchini, Guglielmi and Russen in recognizing that certain forms of commercial exploitation of celebrities that violate the state law right of publicity do not receive First Amendment protection.

It is admittedly not a simple matter to develop a test that will unerringly distinguish between forms of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment and those that must give way to the right of publicity. Certainly, any such test must incorporate the principle that the right of publicity cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, be a right to control the celebrity’s image by censoring disagreeable portrayals. Once the celebrity thrusts himself or herself forward into the limelight, the First Amendment dictates that the right to comment on, parody, lampoon, and make other expressive uses of the celebrity image must be given broad scope. The necessary implication of this observation is that the right of publicity is essentially an economic right. What the right of publicity holder possesses is not a right of censorship, but a right to prevent others from misappropriating the economic