Question
Write only the Discussion section of an interoffice memorandum . DO NOT include Questions Presented, Brief Answers or Statement of Facts. A potential client, Melanie
Write only the Discussion section of an interoffice memorandum.DO NOT include Questions Presented, Brief Answers or Statement of Facts.
A potential client, Melanie Urban, recently came into the office and asked us to file a case on her behalf.Ms. Urban recently discovered that she was featured in a video that was published and sold as part of the "Campus Capers" (CC) series created by a well-known documentary maker.The CC series is sold on-line and may be streamed on Netflicks.The videos cost $20 to download individually or $50 as part of the CC set.The CC video series is produced and sold by Serious Entertainment Incorporated (SEI), a company that is based in Miami, Florida and incorporated in Delaware.
Ms. Urban has told us that she was unaware of this video until recently, even though the footage of her was taken while she was a college student, a while ago.(She is unsure of the specific date.)Ms. Urban, who lives in Scripps Ranch, California, had attended sorority parties while a college student at Great State University (GSU), and one sorority sister brought cocaine to one such party. During the party, several sorority sisters, including Ms. Urban, tried snorting a line. One sorority sister filmed the party, capturing an image of Ms. Urban snorting cocaine, then leaning her head back with a very pleased look on her face. The sorority sister who filmed the party assured all in attendance that the video would not be shown to anyone outside the present group.However, unbeknownst to Ms. Urban, the sorority sister who filmed the party went on to become a reknowned documentary film maker, and, years later, made the CC documentary series using a compilation of footage filmed at various sorority and fraternity parties on campus. In the film, the cinematographer, who had interacted with students during the filming, asked Ms. Urban how she liked college, using Ms. Urban's name. Ms. Urban replied on film, "It's a snort."
Ms. Urban is not a model, public official, or a celebrity.She works at City Hall and serves on several advisory boards at the City. She is a 65-year-old grandmother who has always been active in her community and whose only recreational use of controlled substances occurred while she was a college student.She discovered the existence of the video when her daughter Sienna, who is 36, rented the video from Netflicks. Sienna was curious about the 1980's, after hearing her mother discuss the era. Sienna was shocked to see her mother using drugs because of her mother's zero-tolerance policy on such activities.
According to Netflicks, the video has been watched thousands of times. Ms. Urban is humiliated and distraught as a result of her exposure in this video and is concerned her job and board positions may be at risk.She has tried repeatedly to reach SEI to ask the company to remove her from any of its products, but her phone calls and emails have been ignored.
We need to know whether we should take on Ms. Urban as a client.A memo discussing whether Ms. Urban may be able to state a claim against SEI under California's common law cause of action for commercial misappropriation, also known as the right of publicity.Do NOT discuss Cal. Civ. Code 3344 or any other causes of action.Do not discuss any potential affirmative defenses to these claims (someone else is taking on this task.)Analyze this cause of action and predict whether Ms. Urban is likely to prevail, assuming everything you know about the case so far is true and can be proven in court.
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