The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1899-10-23
PUBLIC RIGHT TO NAMES.
No Law Against Their Use for AID
vertfsing Purposes.

No Law Against Their Use for Adj
vertfsing Purposes.
DETROIT. Mich, Oct. 23.-The Michigan
Supreme Court has decided that man may
use the name or print and circulate the
pictures of another without his consent
and the latter have no legal redress.
The simple English of this is that man
cannot recover at law for any injury to his
feelings merely, and that the law does not
recognize property right either in mans
name or his face. These are as free to all
our fellow men as the air We breathe, and
although it may be indicate in camera
fiend to take snapshot Of his neighbours
wife without her consent, there is no legal
remedy for the impertinence.
The above conclusions were in the action
of the widow of the late Col. John Atkin-
son, a well-known Michigan politician, to
restrain Detroit firm from putting upon
the market the John Atkinson cigar, which
bore label with the name and likeness
of Colonel Atkinson.
The opinion in the case was written by
! Justice Hooker, in which all the members
OF the court agreed. The substance of it
is that there is in law no exclusive right
to the use Of names, which, as a rule, are
received at the hands of parents, surnames
by inheritance, and Christian names at
their will. There are also cases where
names are adopted OF assumed by those
who bear them.
Thus, says the court, disreputable per-
son or criminal may select the name of
the most exemplary for his child or his
horse or dog or monkey.
why not John Atkinson wagon, says
the court. "as well as a John Atkinson
horse or dog? Society understands this
,,,6 he ada1t lxa or
allowances in such cases, and although
each individual member may in his own
case suffer a feeling of humiliation when
his own name or that of some beloved or
respected friend is thus used, he will rsu-
ually in the case of another regard it as a
triie.
I'VE feel sure that society will not think
the less of Col. John Atkinson il cigars
bearing his name were sold In the shops.
Nor are his friends brought into disrepute
thereby. So long as such use does not
amount to a libel We are of the opinion
that Colonel Atkinson would himself be
remediless were he alive, and the same is
| true of his friends who survive
The greater portion of The opinion how
ever, is devoted to the consideration of the
question of the right to print pictures of
| another without his consent, which is de-
| clared TO be a proposition of modern ORR
| gin. "a
The court says the law books published
before 1860 were searched in vain for the
assertion of any such right as that claimed
or the denial Of the right to publish the
| truth for any lawful purpose or in de-
cent manner, either orally in writing, Or
! by pictures. -
1t is held that homes and landscapes are
| not so entirely within the control of own
ers that man commits an invasion of the
| rights of privacy in looking upon their
| beauties or by sketching them or even
| photographing them, or that one has a
| right of action either for damages or to
restrain the possessor OF a camera from
| taking a snapshot at the passer-by for his
| own use. ..r-- -st~a
| The gist of the whole matter, the opin-
| ion says, is that the law cannot make a
right Of action depend upon the intent OF
| the alleged wrongdoer or upon the sensi-
| tiveness OF another. The law has never
| given a right of action for an injury to
| feelings merely.
should 1t be thought" says the Court
| in conclusion, that it is hard rule that
| is applied in this case, it is only neces-
sary to call attention to the fact that a
ready remedy is TO be found in legislation.
] We are not satisfied, however, that the
rule is hard one, and We think that the
consensus of opinion must be that the
| complainants contend for much harder