I recently came across an unusual blend of environment, law, history--and literature--in Enrique Guerra-Pujol's article,
"Misappropriation and The Old Man and the Sea". The abstract:
We consider whether the great writer Ernest Hemingway may have committed the tort of misappropriation when he published his masterpiece “The Old Man and the Sea.” In summary, Hemingway either borrowed or stole (depending on one’s perspective) the following elements of his timeless novella: (i) the actual story itself, (ii) the “back-story” and other biographical details of the main character of the story, Santiago, as well as (iii) Santiago’s ascetic persona and physical characteristics. Although we concede that Hemingway combined these ingredients into a new and original artistic work, the question we are considering in this paper is whether Hemingway’s creative combination of such elements is enough to negate a claim of misappropriation under current U.S. or Cuban law. (We must consider Cuban law in addition to U.S. law since Hemingway lived in Havana, Cuba when he wrote and published “The Old Man and the Sea.”) That is, if Hemingway were writing “The Old Man the Sea” today, could he be liable under the common law doctrine of misappropriation or even under Cuban law?
The article says Hemingway based his character on three different people. In addition to whatever insights about the world and life of his own he may have thrown in. And then there's the novella itself. Is The Old Man and the Sea a work of art, or is it just journalism? The claim that this may be actionable seems to impugn the law more than Hemingway.
ReplyDeleteI reproduce the following from the article, omitting references:
Delete"Many State courts and State legislatures recognize a legal right to a person’s name, image, or likeness. Laws governing the commercial use of a person’s name, image, or likeness are generally referred to as the “right of publicity.” Although there is no federal statute establishing a nationwide right of publicity in the U.S., at least 31 States, including New York and California, recognize this right. (Nineteen U.S. States protect the right of publicity by statute, 21 by common law, and nine by a combination of the two.) In brief, the right of publicity confers on every person the right to control the commercial use of his or her name, image, or likeness or of any other recognizable aspect of his or her persona. Although this right is commonly associated with celebrities, every person--regardless of how famous or not--has the right to prevent the unauthorized commercial use of his or her name or image."
So are you saying the passage you cite suggests to you that Hemingway used "recognizable aspects of...persona" inappropriately? If that's the case, then no one could write stories that make fictional use of people from history. Rushdie could not have written Midnight's Children. Stephen Crane probably might even be challenged on The Red Badge of Courage. Anyone who went somewhere, met people, had formative experiences, and then wrote might be liable.
DeleteI'm not arguing that Hemingway had no responsibility to credit the sources of his inspiration. Maybe what I'm really arguing is that we misunderstand the nature of creativity -- including in copyright law. No one really creates ex nihilo. Everybody stands on the shoulders of other. Maybe it's the myth of individual creativity and intellectual property that spurs responses like the article you're quoting?
I think the basis of these legal doctrines is the idea of a right to personality or privacy, but you're obviously right that there's a potential between these values and the potential to dampen creativity and expression.
DeleteMy great grandfather is anselmo Hernandez .his son is my grand father rigoberto Hernandez. My mother is Janet Hernandez. All of my life I have heared the story's how Hemingway and him were great friends and every time Hemingway was in Cuba would vist anselmo my great grand father is buried here in key west fl i have lived here my whole life my grand father is still alive .anselmo is the old that the book is based on .great to see that this is coming to light .
ReplyDeleteDear David, Dan, and Steven,
ReplyDeleteI am quite late to this party, as I only stumbled upon this post earlier today. In any case, thank you for reading my paper. (As an aside, I made some significant revisions to the paper in 2016, but the main points are the same. It is available here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2569619.)
One of my research areas is property rights, so I am interested in the idea that the common law (via the tort of misappropriation) protects one's rights to one's name, image, or likeness--as well as the limits to this right, given the importance of promoting art. Also, on the human side, it has always bothered me that Mary Hemingway gave the old fisherman Anselmo Hernandez the cold shoulder when washed up in Key West in October 1965, after a perilous journey across the Gulf Stream. I found a photo in Vogue of Anselmo, Hemingway, and Tracy Spencer (who played Santiago in the film version) published in June 1953, which to me is strong evidence that Hemingway definitely had Anselmo in mind when he created the character of Santiago, and Anselmo deserves recognition for this.
Lastly, my other research area is the application of probability theory to law and to other quotidian domains, so in case any of you might be interested, I have written a new paper titled "The Old Man and the Bayesian Sea" that applies probability theory to the novel. Here is a link to my new paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3212250.
Thank you,
Enrique