Judgment for Federalism: A Case for why the Right of Publicity should be a Federal Right

The purpose of the right of publicity is to provide all individuals the right to control the commercial use of their attributes such as likeness, image or name. This state-based right is primarily concerned with protecting celebrities, hereinafter referred to as “personalities.”1 As the right gained more recognition from courts and legislatures in the last 25 years, its value to personalities increased substantially. Sport, entertainment and public figures, like Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Woody Allen, make millions of dollars2 from endorsements, speaking engagements, and right of publicity claims. Personalities are also taking advantage of the wide variation in right of publicity laws to bring claims based on a perception of infringement. Significant variation in state laws and judicial interpretations has proven problematic. Thus, one must ask, does this state-based right of publicity scheme demand a federal right of publicity statute? The answer to that question is “yes” for the following reasons. First, lack of uniformity among state laws causes uncertainty regarding the right’s scope and limitation, and proper forum. Second, the right of publicity conflicts with other intellectual property laws like copyright and trademark. Thirdly, some states have overprotected the right by protecting a personality’s gesture, distinctive appearance or object like a sports car, and by granting postmortem rights of publicity, retroactively. This paper examines these issues and proposes that a federal statute be implemented to limit the right of publicity. Part I of this paper provides a brief background of the right of publicity’s origin, underlying policy and current state. Part II examines the problems with the right of publicity by focusing on differences among state laws, copyright implications in chosen cases, and the expansion of personality rights. Section III examines arguments for and against a federal right of publicity statute. Section IV concludes that a federal statute is necessary and discusses what elements should be incorporated into such a statute

Judgment for Federalism: A Case for why the Right of Publicity should be a Federal Right

The purpose of the right of publicity is to provide all individuals the right to control the commercial use of their attributes such as likeness, image or name. This state-based right is primarily concerned with protecting celebrities, hereinafter referred to as “personalities.”1 As the right gained more recognition from courts and legislatures in the last 25 years, its value to personalities increased substantially. Sport, entertainment and public figures, like Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Woody Allen, make millions of dollars2 from endorsements, speaking engagements, and right of publicity claims. Personalities are also taking advantage of the wide variation in right of publicity laws to bring claims based on a perception of infringement. Significant variation in state laws and judicial interpretations has proven problematic. Thus, one must ask, does this state-based right of publicity scheme demand a federal right of publicity statute? The answer to that question is “yes” for the following reasons. First, lack of uniformity among state laws causes uncertainty regarding the right’s scope and limitation, and proper forum. Second, the right of publicity conflicts with other intellectual property laws like copyright and trademark. Thirdly, some states have overprotected the right by protecting a personality’s gesture, distinctive appearance or object like a sports car, and by granting postmortem rights of publicity, retroactively. This paper examines these issues and proposes that a federal statute be implemented to limit the right of publicity. Part I of this paper provides a brief background of the right of publicity’s origin, underlying policy and current state. Part II examines the problems with the right of publicity by focusing on differences among state laws, copyright implications in chosen cases, and the expansion of personality rights. Section III examines arguments for and against a federal right of publicity statute. Section IV concludes that a federal statute is necessary and discusses what elements should be incorporated into such a statute

Economic Feasibility of Ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum Juice in Texas

The economic feasibility of producing ethanol from sweet sorghum juice is projected using Monte Carlo simulation models to estimate the price ethanol plants will likely have to pay for sweet sorghum and the uncertain returns for ethanol plants. Ethanol plants in high yielding regions will likely generate returns on assets of 11%-12% and in low yield areas the returns on assets will be less than 10%.Sweet Sorghum, Ethanol, Monte Carlo Simulation, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, D20 G10 D81 C15,

First measurements of high frequency cross-spectra from a pair of large Michelson interferometers

Measurements are reported of the cross-correlation of spectra of differential position signals from the Fermilab Holometer, a pair of co-located 39 m long, high power Michelson interferometers with flat, broadband frequency response in the MHz range. The instrument obtains sensitivity to high frequency correlated signals far exceeding any previous measurement in a broad frequency band extending beyond the 3.8 MHz inverse light crossing time of the apparatus. The dominant but uncorrelated shot noise is averaged down over $2\times 10^8$ independent spectral measurements with 381 Hz frequency resolution to obtain $2.1\times 10^{-20} \ \mathrm{m}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ sensitivity to stationary signals. For signal bandwidths $\Delta f > 11$ kHz, the sensitivity to strain $h$ or shear power spectral density of classical or exotic origin surpasses a milestone $PSD_{\delta h} < t_p$ where $t_p= 5.39\times 10^{-44}/\mathrm{Hz}$ is the Planck time.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Health utilities and parental quality of life effects for three rare conditions tested in newborns

Abstract Background Measurement of health utilities is required for economic evaluations. Few studies have evaluated health utilities for rare conditions; even fewer have incorporated disutility that may be experienced by caregivers. This study aimed to (1) estimate health utilities for three rare conditions currently recommended for newborn screening at the state or federal level, and (2) estimate the disutility, or spillover, experienced by parents of patients diagnosed with a rare, heritable disorder. Methods A stated-preference survey using a time trade-off approach elicited health utilities for Krabbe disease, phenylketonuria, and Pompe disease at varying stages (mild, moderate, severe) and onset of disease symptoms (infancy, childhood, and adulthood). We recruited respondents from a nationally representative community sample (n = 862). Respondents valued disease specific health states in three consecutive question frames: (1) adult health state (> = 18 years of age), (2) child health state (< 18 years of age), and (3) as a parent of a child with a condition (parent spillover state). Corresponding mean utilities were calculated for plausible disease states in adulthood and childhood. Mean disutility was estimated for parental spillover. Predictors of utilities were evaluated using a negative binomial regression model. Results More severe conditions and infant health states received lower estimated utility and greater estimated disutility among parents. Conditions with the lowest estimated health utilities were severe infantile Pompe disease (0.40, CI: 0.34–0.46) and infantile Krabbe disease (0.37, CI: 0.32–0.43). Disutility was evident for all conditions evaluated (range: 0.07–0.19). Conclusions Rare childhood conditions are associated with substantial estimated losses in quality of life. Evidence of disutility among parents further warrants the inclusion of spillover effects in cost-effectiveness analyses. Continued research is needed to assess and measure the effects of childhood disease from a family perspective.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147444/1/41687_2019_Article_93.pd

Interferometric Constraints on Quantum Geometrical Shear Noise Correlations

Final measurements and analysis are reported from the first-generation Holometer, the first instrument capable of measuring correlated variations in space-time position at strain noise power spectral densities smaller than a Planck time. The apparatus consists of two co-located, but independent and isolated, 40 m power-recycled Michelson interferometers, whose outputs are cross-correlated to 25 MHz. The data are sensitive to correlations of differential position across the apparatus over a broad band of frequencies up to and exceeding the inverse light crossing time, 7.6 MHz. By measuring with Planck precision the correlation of position variations at spacelike separations, the Holometer searches for faint, irreducible correlated position noise backgrounds predicted by some models of quantum space-time geometry. The first-generation optical layout is sensitive to quantum geometrical noise correlations with shear symmetry---those that can be interpreted as a fundamental noncommutativity of space-time position in orthogonal directions. General experimental constraints are placed on parameters of a set of models of spatial shear noise correlations, with a sensitivity that exceeds the Planck-scale holographic information bound on position states by a large factor. This result significantly extends the upper limits placed on models of directional noncommutativity by currently operating gravitational wave observatories.Comment: Matches the journal accepted versio

Effects of BPA and BPS exposure limited to early embryogenesis persist to impair non-associative learning in adults

Background\ud Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a polymerizing agent used in plastic bottles and several routinely used consumer items. It is classified among endocrine disrupting chemicals suspected to cause adverse health effects in mammals ranging from infertility and cancer to behavioral disorders. Work with the invertebrate lab model Caenorhabditis elegans has shown that BPA affects germ cells by disrupting double-stranded DNA break repair mechanisms. The current study utilizes this model organism to provide insight into low-dose and long-term behavioral effects of BPA and bisphenol-S (BPS), a supposed safer replacement for BPA.\ud \ud Findings\ud Experiments presented in our report demonstrate that the effects of embryonic exposure to considerably low levels of BPA persist into adulthood, affecting neural functionality as assayed by measuring habituation to mechano-sensory stimuli in C. elegans. These results are noteworthy in that they are based on low-dose exposures, following the rationale that subtler effects that may not be morphologically apparent are likely to be discernible through behavioral changes. In addition, we report that embryonic exposure to BPS follows a pattern similar to BPA.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Building upon previous observations using the C. elegans model, we have shown that exposure of embryos to BPA and BPS affects their behavior as adults. These long-term effects are in line with recommended alternate low-dose chemical safety testing approaches. Our observation that the effects of BPS are similar to BPA is not unexpected, considering their structural similarity. This, to our knowledge, is the first reported behavioral study on low-dose toxicity of any endocrine disrupting chemical in C. elegans