Did Jeb Bush's Email Dump Violate a "Florida Right of PUBLICITY Law" defined here?
A number of news outlets have been questioning the political wisdom of publishing the email social security numbers, names,
private addresses, phone numbers, etc of people who wrote to Jeb Bush, and most such articles wonder if there has been a violation of "privacy" -- but I am wondering: Was this a massive violation of the FL Right to PUBLICITY law? What do you think? Here is the law from the Digital Media Law Project:
http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/florida-right-publicity-law
Florida Right of Publicity Law
This page covers legal information specific to the State of Florida. For more general information, see the Legal Guide page on Using the Name or Likeness of Another; for other states, see State Law: Right of Publicity.
Generally speaking, the right of publicity in Florida protects against unauthorized uses of a person's name or likeness for commercial purposes. Florida has two systems of rights of publicity: a statute, and a common law right.
Florida codifies its statutory right of publicity, treated primarily as a property right, at Section 540.08, with which you should familiarize yourself. Florida also recognizes a common law right of publicity under a right of privacy.
THE STATUTORY RIGHT
What the Statutory Right of Publicity Protects
Florida's statutory right of publicity creates a property right held by an individual in his or her name and likeness. See Loft v. Fuller, 408 So.2d 619 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1981). Florida's statute, Fla. Stat. Ann. § 540.08, protects a person's:
name
portrait
photograph, and
likeness.
The term "photograph" includes still or moving pictures or reproductions of an individual. See Lane v. MRA Holdings, LLC, 242 F. Supp. 2d 1205 (M.D. Fla. 2002); see also Tyne v. Time Warner Entm't Co., L.P., 901 So. 2d 802 (Fla. 2005); Badillo v. Playboy Entm't Group, Inc., 2006 WL 785707 (M.D. Fla. Mar. 28, 2006). The individual must be identifiable in the photograph, and not merely a member of the public who is unnamed and not otherwise identified in connection with the use of the photograph. Fla. Stat. Ann. § 540.08(4)(c).
This statute and its interpretations by Florida courts have not formally recognized the protection of an individual's voice, though it is possible that "likeness" would include this. See Neva, Inc. v. Christian Duplications Int'l, Inc., 743 F. Supp. 1533 (M.D. Fla. 1990) (suggesting that an actor's voice in a recording might be within the scope of § 540.08).
What Constitutes a Statutory Violation
Florida's statute protects against unauthorized commercial uses of an individual's name or likeness. Specifically, the statute provides that,
"No person shall publish, print, display or otherwise publicly use for purposes of trade or for any commercial or advertising purpose the name, portrait, photograph, or other likeness of any natural person without ... express written or oral consent."
Fla. Stat. Ann. § 540.08(1).
In Tyne v. Time Warner Entertainment Co., the Florida Supreme Court held that to find a violation of the right of publicity statute, the use must be for the defendant's benefit and done to promote a product or service, not merely for expressive purposes. See Tyne v. Time Warner Entm't Co., L.P., 901 So. 2d 802 (Fla. 2005); see also Almeida v. Amazon.com, Inc., 456 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2006); Tyne v. Time Warner Entm't Co., L.P., 204 F. Supp. 2d 1338 (M.D. Fla. 2002); National Football League v. Alley, Inc., 624 F. Supp. 6 (S.D. Fla. 1983).
Simply using a person's likeness in connection with a commercial product or service does not violate the statute. Rather, the statute is designed to "prevent the unauthorized use of a name to directly promote the product or service of the publisher." ...
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