The federal appeals court in Chicago has agreed to reconsider model June Toney's lawsuit against L'Oreal for violation of publicity rights. Toney's suit alleges unauthorized use of her image on boxes of Ultra Sheen Supreme hair relaxer. The court's unusual move is the second major setback in a publicity rights suit this month for billionaire heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who owns most of L'Oreal, and is the largest individual stockholder of Nestle. Earlier this month, Nestle suffered a $15.6 million dollar verdict in a separate case, in favor of model Russell Christoff, whose face appears without permission on boxes of Taster's Choice instant coffee. [read the Christoff story.]

"This company took a model's stock-in-trade, her face, and used it without permission," said Toney's counsel, Chicago attorney Thomas J. Westgard. "It doesn't take a genius to see the wrong in that." The move in Toney's case is unusual because the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has requested supplemental briefing in the Toney case on whether it should overturn a 1986 decision, Baltimore Orioles v. Major League Baseball Players Association. The Baltimore Orioles case decided that publicity rights in a photograph were destroyed, or "preempted" by federal copyright law. "Under Baltimore Orioles," Westgard explains, "every person who takes your picture with your permission owns the unlimited rights to commercially exploit it. Your kid's school portrait could end up in an ad for a 900 number, or worse. That shouldn't be the law."

Toney's lawsuit alleges that she is a professional model who entered into an agreement with Johnson Products Company in 1995 for use of her picture on the box for Ultra Sheen Supreme for five years, and also for use in national magazines for a year. Ownership of the product shifted to Carson Products, then to L'Oreal, then to Wella, a subsidiary of Proctor & Gamble. Toney alleges that her picture was used beyond the agreed limits. Relying on the Baltimore Orioles opinion, the trial court dismissed her claims, and on September 21, 2004, the appeals court agreed. The latest order is of February 3, 2005, vacating the September decision and requesting rebriefing.
"Federal appeals courts don't like to change their minds any more than the rest of us," says Mr. Westgard, "but this is the right thing to do."

Last year I did some photo modeling for a big Soy products company. Supposedly the photos were never used. Hmmm... I'm off to do some investigative work at the health food store downtown.

PhotoVu Launches New 17" Wireless Digital Picture Frame
[press release mashup] Today PhotoVu announced the availability of the new PV1740 picture frame, which expands the PhotoVu product line and, at $899, offers an affordable alternative to the larger PV1940. "For those customers who don't need quite the size of a 19" LCD display, the PV1740, with it's still wall-sized 17" LCD display, is a great fit, at an unbeatable value," said Robert Jordan, Partner, PhotoVu.

As with all of PhotoVu's products, the PV1740 includes a custom frame and mat made to order, built-in support for Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 and Apple's iPhoto photo management software, as well as an optional 40GB removable hard drive for stand-alone play. For more info visit the PhotoVu website.

Photoshop Tip: Making the Color Palette Work Twice As Hard
If you use the Color palette to select colors, you're probably already using the color ramp at the bottom of the palette for making quick color selections, but here are two tips that make using the ramp faster and easier. First, the color ramp doesn't have to use the same color mode as the color sliders above it; for example, you can have RGB for your sliders and grayscale as your ramp. This is great because it gives you two different models to choose from without digging through menus. You can choose the color modes from both the sliders and the ramp from the Color palette's pop-down menu. The second tip is that if you want to change color ramps quickly, Shift-click on the ramp. Every time you click, it will rotate through to the next color mode..
 This tip is reprinted by permission and sponsored by the NAPP.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Flowers shot with a Canon Digital Rebel at macro setting.
© 2004 Eric Martin of Futura Studios