Amazon.com's Display of Cover Photograph from Book Was Not Commercial Use of Plaintiff's Image for Right of Publicity Claim

Case: Almeida v. Amazon.com, Inc. (11th Cir. 07/18/06 - No. 04-15341)

The One Sentence Summary: The panel affirmed a summary judgment ruling dismissing right of publicity and civil theft claims against Amazon.com for the display of plaintiff's photograph from the cover of a book.


What They Were Fighting About: Plaintiff's photograph was published on the cover of a book called "Anjos Proibidos" or "Forbidden Angels." Amazon was showing the picture on its product detail page in connection with the sale of the book. After plaintiff complained that the use of her photograph was unauthorized, Amazon removed the listing from its web site. Plaintiff sued for right of publicity, civil theft and invasion of privacy. The district court granted summary judgment against plaintiff, dismissing the claim and awarding attorneys' fees to Amazon on the civil theft claim.

Eleventh Circuit Holdings:

• It was unnecessary to address whether the immunity granted to interactive service providers under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("CDA") applied to bar the right of publicity claims in this action because there could be no successful right of publicity claim under the facts of this case.
• Plaintiff's statutory right of publicity claim under Florida law failed because Amazon's incidental display of photographs from the cover or inside of a book was not for a "commercial purpose" as required by the statute. Amazon's display of the photographs was akin to allowing a bookstore patron to browse through the book, and did not create a right of publicity claim.
• The civil theft claim was properly dismissed because there was no evidence of Amazon's intent to misappropriate plaintiff's image.