Fight Over Marilyn Monroe Images

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The legendary image of Marilyn with her skirt blowing up was one of many taken by the late Sam Shaw famous photographer.

Three of his children control The Shaw Family Archives Ltd. in which customers can buy a license for a wide variety images of stars for commercial products. They host a wide variety of images of :

Marilyn Monroe
Muhammad Ali
Dionne Warwick
John Wayne
Woody Allen
Aubrey Hepburn
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Elizabeth Taylor
Debbie Harry
and a wide range of other beautiful images other famous stars.

The Monroe Estate is led by Anna Strasberg who is the widow of Marilyn's producer Lee Strasberg, who received most of her estate. He passed in 1982. They felt that they should have the rights over the Marilyn images since Sam Shaw is deceased and felt that their rights had been infringed upon.

So they took it to court. They had originally filed in Indiana due to the 1994 law that established a right to publicity extending for 100 years after the subject’s death.

The case was moved to New York which does not recognize the Indiana law, because New York was Marilyn's legal residence.

The Monroe Estate had issues with the image being sold without them getting a part of the millions of dollars such sales will bring in.

Judge Colleen McMahon made her decision Wednesday regarding the matter.

"Ms. Monroe could not devise by will a property right she did not own at the time of her death," McMahon said.

Meaning Marilyn did not assert rights over the images of herself while she was alive. So they belonged to Sam Shaw and via Sam his heirs to do with them as they will. Such as selling a license to allow a company to put them on just as many t-shirts as they want.

The Marilyn Estate is considering an appeal at this time.


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