BILL NUMBER: S6680

SPONSOR: SAVINO
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to excluding certain
works and individuals from violations of the right of publicity

 
PURPOSE:

To ensure that the civil rights law does not chill access to exempt
expressive works by clarifying that that the service of licensing visual
and audio visuals works online does not violate Section 50-f of the
civil rights law.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 50-f of the civil service law by adding a new
subparagraph v to paragraph d of subdivision 2 thereof to provide that
works identified under this subdivision will not violate the section
regardless of medium or means of transmittal.

              

Section 2 adds a new subdivision 10 to section 50-f of the civil rights
law to provide that " Nothing in this section shall apply to a person
that offers a service that displays, offers for sale or license, sells
or licenses a work of art or other visual work, or audiovisual work, to
a user, provided the terms of the sale or license do not authorize the
user to engage in acts that constitute a violation of this Section."

Section 3 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The digital environment has created and will continue to create new
forms of expressive works that may not be identified in the future as a
"play, book, magazine, literary work, newspaper, radio or television
programs" but will contain similar expressive content and be entitled to
the same exemptions (such as blogs and podcasts.

Services have developed in this digital environment where works of art,
visual works and audiovisual works are aggregated and made available for
licensing online via online license agreements for many purposes includ-
ing the incorporation into exempt expressive works identified in the
civil rights law. This Service is critical to the creation of important
expressive work that inform and educate the public and contribute to our
culture. As the service cannot monitor the licensee's use of the visual
and audio visual content the service should be exempt from this section
provided the license'agreement does not authorize the licensee to engage
in acts that constitute a violation of this civil rights law.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same manner as
Chapter 304 of the laws of 2020, take effect.