Direitos de imagem de atletas em Jogos Eletrônicos Esportivos

Abstract

Athlete's image rights are governed by article 87-A of Law 9,615/1997, known as "Lei Pelé", which legally provides that the assignment or exploitation is the holder's personal right. In this area, the image rights of athletes fit the analysis of their use in electronic games, given the existence of open legal controversies in Brazil. It traces the existence of the right of image use with regard to electronic games in the Brazilian legal system, by analyzing legislation, jurisprudence and foreign decisions, in order to define by what means such rights are guaranteed. The general objective of the work is to understand the application of the image rights of athletes in electronic sports games, taking into account the legislative and jurisprudential aspects, also aiming to carry out a conceptual review of the image rights and which personal characteristics comprise the legal good protected of the personal image, including in electronic games. In the scope of the research, the hypothetical-deductive approach was used, in which one starts from a hypothesis and aims at confirming it in the particularity, and the methods of statistical, typological and functionalist procedure were used for the confection of the work. It is emphasized that the work is guided by the pertinence of art. 87-A of Law 9.615/1997 on the assignment and right of use of professional athletes' image in electronic games, by the conceptualization of image right as beyond the mere use of name or image, which also encompasses statistical data, social attributes and biographical information, and the importance of the decisions and legal precedents signed in Brazil for the implementation of changes in licensing policies and assignment of players' image rights in the sphere of electronic games producers. Through the legislative, comparative and jurisprudential analysis of the subject, it is concluded that the players' demand is suitable, due to the need of individual and personal assignment of rights of use to name, appearance, attributes and biographical data. It is also observed that due to the violation of the right of use of image, the electronic game producers have changed the policy of licensing and use of image, which attests the judicial impact existing in the lawsuits filed by the athletes.