The problem is the war on privacy. We'll win it when privacy is enshrined in law as a fundamental human right in the same way that freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion are.

Making info about me my private property is not the best way to fight back in this war. If I'm not a public figure of legitimate public interest, you don't have a right to know that I exist, and you certainly don't have a right to know my name or other facts about me.

I don't need or want to own anyone's collection of info about me. That collection should not exist at all. If it doesn't exist, it can't have an owner.

It means, photographers cannot own a copyright on their works. The same goes for TV journalists.

No, it simply means that they have to get a release for a photo which features someone's face.

"If a lookalike consents to having their likeness manipulated, whose likeness is it?"

Actually, they wouldn't even have to use a lookalike. They could just use animation software and recreate someone's face. However, if that recreation is sufficiently accurate that the general public cannot tell whether or not it is real, this becomes a breach of privacy in any case, because clearly the intent is to steal a person's likeness for their own use.

As far as photography goes, in public spaces you do not need a release for incidentally photographing someone in that space. If you were later to use that photo to recreate a realistic image of an individual for use in a new work, then you are in breach of privacy laws.

@Brian Fitzgerald

How about giving me back the privacy that was the birthright of every US citizen when I was born (before 1960)?

I used to shop at the supermarket without identifying myself, and, because I paid cash, no record of the sale was kept by my bank or the supermarket. When I made a local telephone call, the call wasn't logged, by anyone, anywhere. I could send mail with no privacy leak other than the postmark.

Speaking of paper mail, did you know that, in 2026, every piece of mail sent through the US Postal Service is photographed, and that the photo is stored forever? The photo is created by the machine that reads zip codes (postal codes).

My immediate reaction is that a lookalike's likeness is the likeness of the lookalike. A celebrity does not own another's face.

I agree that the loss of privacy has gone too far. Governments expect us to trust them and their enforcers to be good people. Sorry, that is not going to well in quite a few countries with which we are familiar at the moment.

I had a general chat with a colleague recently, who has obtained a position that will require a highly invasive security check. She is not looking forward to it. Years ago, I was asked to go through the same check and simply refused - no position is worth the price of giving access to your entire life. Quite apart from the fact that I do not trust the bastards.

Yabba Dabba Do!

😀