For studios and distributors re-using catalogue featuring performers who have died

A new scene of a performer who has died needs the estate first.

Afterimage keeps, title by title, whether a late performer’s appearance needs the rights holders’ consent under New York’s widened right of publicity — a new digital replica, an ad, or just the original footage — and the estate’s written permission with its scope and expiry. Each use says in words whether consent is needed and why.

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The problem

New York widened the right of publicity for those who have died.

Since December 2025, commercial use of a deceased New York performer’s name, voice or likeness — and a digital replica of them in a film, recording or live musical performance — needs the rights holders’ prior consent. Documentaries, parody and news are excepted, and so is simply remastering what was recorded. Getting it wrong costs at least $2,000 a use, plus profits.

Digital replicas

of deceased personalities now fall under New York’s right of publicity for commercial use.

Skadden →

Prior consent

from the rights holders, before the use goes out.

$2,000

at least, per unauthorised use, plus profits.

Will not call a title cleared that is not.

A new replica with no permission, a permission that does not cover advertising used in an ad, an exception claimed where it does not fit, and a performer whose domicile is unknown are each on the file as things that cannot go out yet. Uses are dropped, never deleted.

How it works

Uses, permissions, the file

Record each use

Title and performer, release date, date of death, domicile, and what the use is: a new replica, an ad, or original footage.

Add the estate’s permission

Who gave it, when, when it runs out, its scope in its own words, and whether it covers a replica and advertising.

Print the file

What cannot go out yet, what is missing, and every use with its permission, for clearance.

What it will never do

It keeps the file. It clears nothing.

Afterimage records the consents. Whether a use is cleared is your counsel’s call.

No estate contact.You get the permission; Afterimage keeps it.

Nothing deleted.A use is dropped, and stays on the record.

It is not a lawyer.Not legal advice.

It never touches a payment.The subscription is for software.

Pricing

Priced per distributor

Less than one unauthorised use.

Most studios

One distributor

$19/month

One studio or distributor’s catalogue.

Consent needed, use by use
Estate permissions and scope
Printable clearance file

One distributor, yearly

$190/year

The same, two months free.

Everything in One distributor
Dropped uses kept
Export for your counsel

Subscription. Your bank statement says Afterimage Software. Refunded in full on request within 30 days. Your licence key is emailed to you within two working days of payment.

Checkout is our own bitcoin server, not a card processor — nobody we had to apply to and nobody who can close the account. The button takes you straight to it. Give your email address there — that is where your key is sent.

Questions

The ones we actually get asked

Does a plain re-release need consent?

Remastering what was originally recorded is excepted. A new digital replica is not.

What about documentaries?

They are excepted — but not a hologram at a live concert. Afterimage asks which exception you are relying on, and why.

Does it apply to every late performer?

To those who died domiciled in New York. Afterimage asks, and treats unknown as something to settle.

Is this legal advice?

No. It is the file clearance asks for.

What do I actually get when I pay?

The demo on this page is the whole program, running on invented records. Paying gets you a licence key — one line of text, emailed to the address you give at checkout within two working days. Paste it into the program and from then on it keeps your own records. Until then, nothing you type into it is kept.

The key is checked inside the page, on your own machine. It never calls us, so there is still no account and nothing about your business goes anywhere. If you ever stop paying, your records stay exactly where they are, read-only, and Export still hands you every one of them.

Open the demo before the anniversary cut

The invented distributor has a new scene of a late performer with no permission, a trailer whose permission does not cover ads, a hologram at a concert claimed as a documentary, a plain re-release that needs nothing, and a performer whose domicile is unknown.

Open the demo See pricing