Law Lords hand more power to celebrities… & their PRs
‘Having paid £1 million for an exclusive right it seems to me that OK! ought to be in a position to protect that right and to look to the law for redress were a third party intentionally to destroy it.’
– Lord Brown
The Law Lords’ decision to uphold OK!’s exclusive right to Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas’ wedding photographs sets a dangerous precedent for investigative reporters… but may be good news for controlling public relations people.
The Lords have ruled that Hello! had no right to publish the wedding photos it had obtained because to do so was to destroy the right to exclusivity OK! had obtained through its contract with the couple. That appears to mean that where picture rights to an event have been sold, nobody else’s photographs may be published… without the permission of the subject’s public relations machine. And that could lead to a sudden shortage of candid shots of celebrities. Perhaps all Britney Spears needed to do to stop photos of her without knickers was to sell upskirt rights to somebody she trusts.
More seriously, there is a risk that real news stories will be spiked along with less flattering celebrity photos. But the celebrity public relations industry may not have it all its own way. Last year a crude attempt by Robbie Williams to better control his image badly backfired.
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