“[W]hatever information value a celebrity’s endorsement has to consumers would be lost if every advertiser can use the celebrity’s name and picture…. The existence of a congestion externality provides an argument that rights of publicity should be perpetual and thus inheritable (a matter of legal controversy today). We don’t want this form of information or expression to be in the public domain, because it will be less valuable there, whether the celebrity is dead or alive.”
Judge Posner – RICHARD POSNER, ECONOMIC ANLAYSIS OF LAW 43 (4th ed. 1992).
Law in Style. 