Comic book superstar Todd McFarlane has won, at least for now, his battle with hockey player Tony Twist. Todd modeled a character in his Spawn comic on Twist, who turned around and sued over the unauthorized use of his name. Two years ago this month, a Missouri jury awarded Twist $24.5 million. (Do you realize how many baseballs you could buy for $24.5 million?) Later that year, an appeals court overturned the decision. Twist filed an appeal but the Missouri Supreme Court has now decided to side with the appellate guys. Here's a link to the text of the 35-page decision if you'd like to plow through it. Basically, it comes down to this line:
The use of a public figure's name and persona in a work of fiction is protected by the First Amendment when no reasonable person could believe that the things described in the fictional work are "of and concerning" the plaintiff.
Congrats to Todd…and my admiration for not settling this outta court for a million or three, which is probably what Mr. Twist and his lawyers figured you'd do. That kind of settlement chips away at the First Amendment as effectively as any censor or book-burner. And I must say I was disappointed in a couple of folks in the comic book field who subordinated an important principle to their schadenfreude-type hope that Todd would lose big.