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- <text id=93TT1517>
- <title>
- Apr. 26, 1993: Judging It by Its Cover
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Apr. 26, 1993 The Truth about Dinosaurs
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 16
- SOCIETY
- Judging It by Its Cover
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>A murder victim's image sells books until a federal court says,
- "Enough!"
- </p>
- <p> Police found Tammy Dee Acker's body, stabbed 11 times by
- robbers, in her father's home in Fleming-Neon, Kentucky. The
- ghastly murder features prominently in the book A Dark and
- Bloody Ground, but the literary content wasn't questioned in the
- lawsuit filed by Tammy's sister, Tawny Acker Hogg. It was the
- cover, which includes a portrait of Tammy--without her
- family's permission. The photo appears with a glossy splotch of
- red superimposed over her face. "This is pure commercial
- exploitation designed to sell a product with Acker's
- photograph," said Joe F. Childers, Hogg's attorney, arguing that
- under a Kentucky law she can control use of her sister's image.
- </p>
- <p> The attorney for the book's author, Darcy O'Brien,
- countered that the law was meant to protect celebrities like
- Elvis Presley, whose images could be used to market memorabilia.
- U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood disagreed, issuing a temporary
- restraining order that prohibited distribution of the book.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-