Liability And Defence Of News Media On Infringing The Commercial Rights Of Personality

It is a primary legal problem on the balance of press right and the right of personality. With the development of market economy, the right of personality and some parts of it take on some content of property and transfer. The right of personality tends to commercialization. Firstly, to further understand the right of personality, it gives a general research on the commercialization of the right of personality and the new character of the right of personality during the course of commercial utilization. Secondly, it makes a comparative study of the civil liability of the news media when news infringe the commercial rights of personality as well as conducts a deep analysis of the possible conflicts of the rights of press and the commercial rights of personality, and introduces the developed mass media law of the U.S.A., which provides the principle of protecting the personality of property and the rights of mass media. Finally, it enforce the study of the commercial right of personality, which will help the news media to deal with these disputes and encourage the construction of press law in China in theory and practice.Today's research on press torts often focuses on the personality while neglects the economic character of personality because of the limited opinion on personality. The research on press torts therefore is lagged. As to the articles concerning commercial personality, they are limited to simple claims that the right of personality should be protected overwhelmingly without deep analysis of many important specific legal issues about news media if media be the main body of torts. By analyzing the commercial rights of personality and introducing the foreign principle of keeping the balance between the press and the right of personality, it expounds and researches the basic liability of news media and the defence and gives some suggestion on legal reform. By reading literatures, sorting out materials and analyzing cases, with comparison method and balancing of interest, the author draws her own conclusions through comparison, analysis and induction. The conclusions of this thesis are as the follows: (1) Being an important part of personality, the commercial character of personality is important to personality itself and meaningful to the development of economy. (2) In resolving the conflicts between the press and personality, the freedom of the press should be protected firstly. The right of press shouldn't be sacrificed for protecting the commercial right of personality. (3) Fault is still requirement of press torts. The tort of press infringing the commercial right of personality is according to this principle and has its own character. (4) The defence should advantageous to protecting the press. (5) China shall use the U.S. relevant mechanism and practices for reference to perfect commercial personality legal system and make full use of domestic legislation to protect commercial personality and the right of press.