After seeing her family on NatGeo, Donnice Roberts is asking a Texas judge to bar future military families from having their images used without permission.
Donnice Roberts is the widow of the late Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Casey Roberts, who served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service.
On behalf of herself and others, she's suing the Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Cable Networks and the National Geographical Society for publishing the image of herself and her two children in a NatGeo documentary, Inside Afghan ER. And she's demanding an injunction against the film.
In her complaint filed on Thursday in Texas federal court, Roberts says the documentary includes images of a family trip to Disney World and she believes that a photograph was taken from Sgt. Roberts' personal laptop computer after his death and without permission.
The documentary has been distributed around the world by Fox and has won a prize in Asia, according to Roberts, who found out about it when she received a phone call from a military service member in Germany who had seen it on the Armed Forces Network.
She investigated further because at the time she hadn't known there was video footage related to her husband's death in May 2008 on a security mission in Khost, Afghanistan. She contacted the National Geographic Society, which produced the film, and asked for a copy. Roberts says she was told that she would have to sign a release. She refused.
Roberts now says in her lawsuit that she's suffered "mental anguish, shock and sadness" as a result of her allegedly unauthorized appearance.
Instead, Roberts is asking for a big injunction.
Besides a judge's order to enjoin further airing or marketing of Inside Afghan ER, she's also demanding that the defendants be prohibited from using military family members' images, names or likenesses for commercial purposes without their written permission. According to the lawsuit:
"The enforcement and placement of this permanent injunctive relief will honor Sergeant Roberts and is an appropriate equitable remedy for the Defendants' unauthorized conduct. Moreover, this injunctive relief will prevent any other future military family member from a similar situation."
Read More: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/soldiers-widow-sues-fox-tv-385923
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