Name, Image, Likeness & Publicity Rights
Your lawyer helps you control and monetize the commercial use of your identity, face, voice, and persona.
What This Covers
Your face on a flyer, your voice on a hook, your name on a t-shirt — to a fan that's just you, but to the law each one is a commercial asset you can own, control, and get paid for. That's the "right of publicity": you, and generally only you, decide who profits off your identity. For an independent artist your brand IS the product, so letting someone use your name or image for free — or without you knowing — leaves money and control on the table. It's not one national rule either; it's a state-by-state patchwork, and which state's law applies often decides the whole question.
Your lawyer figures out which state's law actually governs your situation and puts weight behind it — sending demand letters when a company lifts your likeness, papering endorsement and sponsorship deals so a one-time fee never buys "perpetual, worldwide, all-media" rights, and building anti-AI-cloning and written-consent language into your producer, distribution, and sync contracts. Your lawyer also negotiates photo and likeness approval into your deals, untangles who owns a press shot, and structures merch agreements so the split stays fair and the rights come back to you cleanly.
Why It Matters to You
Indie artists get their likeness lifted constantly — a club slaps your photo on a flyer, a brand runs your face in an ad, a bootlegger prints your name on hoodies — and without a label's legal department, nobody's watching your back. The newest threat moves faster: AI can clone your voice from a few minutes of audio and put songs and endorsements in your mouth you never made.
Most of this is winnable on the front end, with paperwork instead of lawsuits. Get the approval rights, the narrow usage grants, and the anti-cloning clauses in place before there's a problem, and you keep control of the one thing that's entirely yours — and you get paid every time someone sells your name.
The Services We Offer
The Name, Image, Likeness & Publicity Rights services Done Deal Digital offers, performed by a licensed attorney you engage directly.
Right of Publicity Protection
Your lawyer stops companies from using your name, face, or voice to sell things without paying you.
Endorsement & Sponsorship Agreements
Your lawyer negotiates and drafts brand-deal contracts so you're paid fairly and keep control of how you're portrayed.
Likeness & AI-Voice Protection
Your lawyer addresses unauthorized AI clones of your voice or likeness and builds protections into your contracts.
Image Licensing & Approval Rights
Your lawyer secures your right to approve photos, artwork, and how your image is used in any release or campaign.
Merchandising Rights Agreements
Your lawyer papers the deals that let others make and sell merch using your name and image, with you getting paid.
Prefer to learn it yourself first? Get the Name, Image, Likeness & Publicity Rights guide — $39 →
Start With a Free, No-Pressure Intro
Tell us what you're dealing with - a contract, a copyright, a name dispute, a bad deal - and we'll connect you with the right music lawyer. You'll engage and pay the attorney directly under their own agreement. Done Deal Digital is not a law firm and never collects or shares in any legal fee.
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DONE DEAL DIGITAL IS NOT A LAW FIRM and does not provide legal advice or legal services. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
The legal services described here are provided solely by an independent attorney licensed in California, whom Done Deal Digital connects clients with. Done Deal Digital does not employ, supervise, or control that attorney and is not responsible for the legal services provided.
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