The Judiciarys Law Journal

The Judiciarys Law Journal

Author Performers or Celebrities?! An Inquiry into the Conflict Between Performers’ Rights and the Publicity Right

Document Type : Research/Original/Regular Article

Author
Assistant Professor of Private Law, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Law, Jahrom University, Jahrom, Iran
10.22106/jlj.2026.2063477.6321
Abstract
The fragmentation of moral and economic rights of performers in international regulations, along with inconsistent protective measures across common law and civil law jurisdictions, has left many aspects of performers’ rights shrouded in ambiguity. This issue becomes even more complex when the performer is also the creator of a literary or artistic work or holds commercial celebrity status, leading to conflicts between different moral rights. Against this backdrop, the central question of this study is: Can neighboring rights provide comprehensive protection when the performer is simultaneously the author or enjoys right of publicity? This article seeks to distinguish performers’ rights from authorship rights and the right of publicity, highlighting significant legal gaps and the inadequacy of current laws, while proposing a general theory on the matter. The findings indicate that, although existing legal frameworks permit separate reliance on neighboring rights, copy-right, and the right of publicity, none of these fully and cohesively address all aspects of performers’ intellectual property rights. Instead, each covers only a fragment of performers’ entitlements. Consequently, to resolve potential disputes, it is imperative to establish an independent and harmonized legal framework specifically tailored to performers’ rights.

Keywords
Subjects

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Volume 90, Issue 134
Summer 2026
Pages 157-190

  • Receive Date 11 June 2025
  • Revise Date 06 November 2025
  • Accept Date 04 May 2026
  • First Publish Date 04 May 2026
  • Publish Date 23 August 2026