§ 51. Action for injunction and for damages. Any person whose name,
portrait, picture or voice is used within this state for advertising
purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first
obtained as above provided may maintain an equitable action in the
supreme court of this state against the person, firm or corporation so
using his name, portrait, picture or voice, to prevent and restrain the
use thereof; and may also sue and recover damages for any injuries
sustained by reason of such use and if the defendant shall have
knowingly used such person's name, portrait, picture or voice in such
manner as is forbidden or declared to be unlawful by section fifty of
this article, the jury, in its discretion, may award exemplary damages.
But nothing contained in this article shall be so construed as to
prevent any person, firm or corporation from selling or otherwise
transferring any material containing such name, portrait, picture or
voice in whatever medium to any user of such name, portrait, picture or
voice, or to any third party for sale or transfer directly or indirectly
to such a user, for use in a manner lawful under this article; nothing
contained in this article shall be so construed as to prevent any
person, firm or corporation, practicing the profession of photography,
from exhibiting in or about his or its establishment specimens of the
work of such establishment, unless the same is continued by such person,
firm or corporation after written notice objecting thereto has been
given by the person portrayed; and nothing contained in this article
shall be so construed as to prevent any person, firm or corporation from
using the name, portrait, picture or voice of any manufacturer or dealer
in connection with the goods, wares and merchandise manufactured,
produced or dealt in by him which he has sold or disposed of with such
name, portrait, picture or voice used in connection therewith; or from
using the name, portrait, picture or voice of any author, composer or
artist in connection with his literary, musical or artistic productions
which he has sold or disposed of with such name, portrait, picture or
voice used in connection therewith. Nothing contained in this section
shall be construed to prohibit the copyright owner of a sound recording
from disposing of, dealing in, licensing or selling that sound recording
to any party, if the right to dispose of, deal in, license or sell such
sound recording has been conferred by contract or other written document
by such living person or the holder of such right. Nothing contained in
the foregoing sentence shall be deemed to abrogate or otherwise limit
any rights or remedies otherwise conferred by federal law or state law.