This is not a pop quiz on what you remember from American history about the 1860’s.
A story in the May 7, 2026, New York Times recounts the lawsuit by a Hollywood actress (and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) against James Cameron and others involved in the Avatar franchise.
Basically, Cameron admits to using Q’orianka Kilcher’s image to create a significant though artificial character.
“One of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers exploited a young Indigenous girl’s biometric identity and cultural heritage to create a record-braking film franchise without credit or compensation to her,” Ms. Kilcher’s complaint states.
Cameron says, well, so what?
It turns out that there have been at least five other lawsuits about Cameron and friends stealing identities for profit in the Avatar films. The director has not lost a suit. The law doesn’t have a ‘bright line’ between image rights and fair use – such as in a news story, or, ironically, a parody on a show like Saturday Night Live.
And, in today’s blossoming world of Artificial Intelligence that means all of us lack the right to not be used for someone else’s profit.
We don’t own us, they do.
Now, flip the coin…
As I’ve discussed before, all of us have multiple electronic identities. Sign-up for rewards and deals at some chair store or have a store membership? What you buy gets tracked and your tendencies get sold to marketers.
One quick example: while caring for a friend for five years I bought him a lot of incontinence products. More recently I bought those items for my mom in her last days. Guess what sort of “just for you” coupons I get now that I’m NOT buying the goods? (I’d share them, but they come with my name and identifiers on them.)
The Sunday May 17, 2026, New York Times carried a story headlines, Lawmakers Consider Bills to Curb Dynamic Pricing. The short version: what you pay for something may be linked to who the seller thinks you are.
“These predatory pricing schemes use algorithms to analyze where you live, your spending habits, and even whether or not you’re in a hurry. Then they charge you that price – not a fair price, not one price – but the highest price.” —New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Right now, that’s legal in most states.
Want to bet if those algorithms give a working mom with a fast-food job a discount on a gallon of milk?j
To rework Tina Turner, ‘what’s fair got to do with it?’
Time for the soap box… Technology proves time and again that we need an explicit, enforceable right to privacy Amendment to the United States Constitution. Yes, we can choose to be a model for a character in Avatar 27. You have the right to choose not to be used too.
And corporate America ought not profit from identifiable data on what we put in our shopping cart. That half gallon of homemade vanilla ice cream is my private choice. (If you ask nice I will share.)
Glenn Koenen
Editor’s Note: The headline image was created by an AI tool with instructions to illustrate predatory dynamic pricing in the grocery store. We have no idea whose face was copied to generate this image, but if you recognize yourself, well, we’re sorry.