Oy!

Woody Allen's $10 million dollar lawsuit against American Apparel is interesting.

The company, which is noted for it's fairly wild ads, used a shot of Woody as a Chasid from Annie Hall. Woody does not do advertising in the U.S. so sued for unauthorized use of his image.

American Apparel claimed Woody's image doesn't mean that much to anyone. They're now demanding information about his personal life to be used in court to show that his reputation isn't great.

Woody claims it's an intimidation tactic.

I'm not up on the law in this area (though I do know some people who specialize in this), but everyone seems to agree that American Apparel used his image without permission. The question is, then, how do you decide what that should cost them. Should American Apparel get to ask all sorts of personal questions to determine how worthwhile this usage is. They obviously thought it was worth something to some people or they wouldn't have put it up.

And in determining the value of what they've taken from Woody (if anything--I can imagine a legal regime where you can use anyone's likeness anytime for any reason), who gets to decide the value. Is it the amount of money the company can expect to gain from the ads? Or is it the damage done to Woody's personal dignity?