Porco v. Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC
Christopher Porco filed a right of publicity claim under New York Civil Rights Law Section 51, arguing that Lifetime's broadcast…
Christopher Porco filed a right of publicity claim under New York Civil Rights Law Section 51, arguing that Lifetime’s broadcast of a film about his crime was “substantially fictionalized” and for commercial purposes. The Reporters Committee focused on the fact that under the statute, Lifetime could only be held liable if it broadcast the film “for advertising or for purposes of trade.” Having such a narrow scope, Section 51 did not apply to the docudrama, which did not use the plaintiff’s likeness for either of these reasons but rather to describe an actual event of public interest.