Joseph Finger

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a privacy action, holding that the use of the plaintiffs' photograph in a news article about fertility was protected by the newsworthiness exception to Civil Rights Law §§ 50 and 51. The court found a real relationship between the photograph and the article's subject matter, so the use was not a commercial appropriation. The decision relied on prior New York cases interpreting the statutes narrowly.