Abstract
Casey Anthony, charged with first-degree murder of her two-year-old daughter, filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2013. Absent from Ms. Anthony's list of assets are intellectual property rights in a book that she has stated she will write based on her life-story. This Comment addresses whether a life-story and future book rights should be property of the bankruptcy estate. It relies on legal arguments based on 11 U.S.C. § 541(a), copyright law, labor theory, and the right of publicity. Practical arguments based on real-world practice and public policy, such as the entry of intellectual property into the public domain and Son of Sam statutes, are also considered. After determining that Ms. Anthony's life-story and future book rights should be considered property of the bankruptcy estate, this Comment also argues that a market-based approach to valuation is the appropriate method to be used for assessing the value of intellectual property rights of this sort.
Recommended Citation
Rachel M. Neufeld,
When an Alleged Wrong Becomes a Protected Right: Casey Anthony's Life-story and Future Book Rights Are Property of the Bankruptcy Estate,
31
Emory Bankr. Dev. J.
147
(2014).
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/ebdj/vol31/iss1/11