Some states recognize the right through statute and some others through common law. California has both statutory and common - law strains of authority protecting slightly different forms of the right. The right of publicity is a property right, rather than a tort, and so the right may be transferable to the person 's heirs after their death. The Celebrities Rights Act was passed in California in 1985 and it extended the personality rights for a celebrity to 70 years after their death. Previously, the 1979 Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi 's personality rights could not pass to his heirs.
who owns the likeness and intellectual property of dead celebrities
the person 's heirs