Contact the Governor in Support of California Assembly Bill SB 771

Dear California Screen Actors Guild Member, Screen Actors Guild is asking you to write to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and urge him to sign California Assembly Bill SB 771 (Keuhl, D – Santa Monica) into law. The bill was passed unanimously by both the California State Assembly and Senate. As you are probably aware, SB 771 will extend the protections of the 1985 Astaire Law, and allow the heirs or beneficiaries of performers who died before 1985 to control the commercial exploitation of the deceased’s name, image, signature and likeness.
Astaire Law was enacted to protect
the publicity rights for deceased celebrities. This law states that
posthumous rights of publicity (name, voice, signature, likeness) become
transferable by will, contract or list of heirs.
Screen
Actors Guild sponsored SB 771 because it clarifies that the property right to
use a deceased personality's name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness in
a commercial product is freely descendible by means of trust or any other
testamentary instrument executed before or after January 1, 1985. This bill
makes clear that regardless of when an individual dies, his or her heirs and
beneficiaries may, for 70 years from the date of death, control the use of his
or her image for commercial purposes. SB 771 explicitly states that the
rights recognized for deceased personalities are made retroactive, including
to those deceased personalities who died before January 1, 1985.
SB
771 also clarifies that unless the testamentary instrument contains an express
disposition of publicity rights, those rights will be transferred to the
residuary beneficiaries.
Please take a moment and send the
letter below to Governor Schwarzenegger and ask him to sign this important
bill into law today.

Please
email or fax your support of the bill to Governor Schwarzenegger:

Fax:
916-445-4633
Email: http://www.govmail.ca.gov
Sample
email/ fax:
September 27, 2007
The
Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento,
CA 95814
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
I am
a proud member of Screen Actors Guild, writing to you to express my support of
SB 771 to reaffirm California’s protection of post-mortem publicity rights for
deceased celebrities.
SB 771 is critical to protect
creative artists from constant attempts to commercially exploit their images.
This legislation, SB 771, must be enacted to protect artists’ likeness from
potentially offensive commercial uses and to make sure that their legends and
legacies are not corrupted.
The current law must be
clarified in order to ensure that a deceased personality’s images will be
protected in accordance with his or her wishes. I believe SB 771 will
accomplish this objective.
For the above reasons, I strongly
support SB 771 and urge you to sign this bill into law.
Sincerely,