[Effective 7/1/2024]

(a) To the extent such use is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is deemed a fair use and not a violation of an individual‘s right, for purposes of this part, if the use of a name, photograph, voice, or likeness is:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 47-25-1107 v2

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Individual: means human being, living or dead. See Tennessee Code 47-25-1102
  • Likeness: means the use of an image of an individual for commercial purposes. See Tennessee Code 47-25-1102
  • Photograph: means any photograph or photographic reproduction, still or moving, or any videotape or live television transmission, of any individual, so that the individual is readily identifiable. See Tennessee Code 47-25-1102
  • Voice: means a sound in a medium that is readily identifiable and attributable to a particular individual, regardless of whether the sound contains the actual voice or a simulation of the voice of the individual. See Tennessee Code 47-25-1102 v2
(1) In connection with any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account;
(2) For purposes of comment, criticism, scholarship; satire, or parody;
(3) A representation of the individual as the individual’s self in an audiovisual work, as defined under 17 U.S.C. § 101, unless the audiovisual work containing the use is intended to create, and does create, the false impression that the work is an authentic recording in which the individual participated;
(4) Fleeting or incidental; or
(5) In an advertisement or commercial announcement for a work described in this subsection (a).
(b) The use of a name, voice, or likeness photograph, or likeness in a commercial medium does not constitute a use for purposes of advertising or solicitation solely because the material containing such use is commercially sponsored or contains paid advertising. Rather it shall be a question of fact whether or not the use of the complainant individual’s name, photograph,voice, or likeness was so directly connected with the commercial sponsorship or with the paid advertising as to constitute a use for purposes of advertising or solicitation.
(c) Nothing in this section applies to the owners or employees of any medium used for advertising, including, but not limited to, newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, billboards, and transit ads, who have published or disseminated any advertisement or solicitation in violation of this part, unless it is established that such owners or employees had knowledge or reasonably should have known of the unauthorized use of the individual’s name, photograph, or likeness as prohibited by this section.
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