Emory Law Journal Volume 67 Issue 4 2018 Persona¿Character Copyrights and Merger¿s Role in the Evolution of Entertainment Expressions Sydney Altman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj Recommended Citation Sydney Altman, Persona¿Character Copyrights and Merger¿s Role in the Evolution of Entertainment Expressions, 67 Emory L. J. 735 (2018). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol67/iss4/2 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Emory Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Emory Law Journal by an authorized editor of Emory Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ALTMAN_COMMENT GALLEYPROOFS 4/23/2018 12:22 PM PERSONA–CHARACTER COPYRIGHTS AND MERGER’S ROLE IN THE EVOLUTION OF ENTERTAINMENT EXPRESSIONS ABSTRACT Millions of people tuned in to Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to learn about the state of our nation from the renowned satirical character, Stephen Colbert. Millions more tuned in to watch the same Stephen Colbert make his return on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. However, after his first television revival, Viacom quickly shut down any possible future return, claiming that it, not Stephen Colbert the actor, held the copyright to the character Stephen Colbert. While this is not the first time that an actor was ineligible to maintain control over a persona–character he crafted, this incident exposed that copyright law does not have a means of protecting characters who become a true extension of the living, breathing actor.