Click photo to enlarge This General Motors ad featuring an
unusually buff Albert Einstein does not violate any laws, a
federal judge ruled in Los Angeles. Hebrew University claims it
is control of the late physicist Einstein's likeness.  However
"tasteless" it might have been for General Motors to use Albert
Einstein's image in a car advertisement, it wasn't illegal, a
federal judge in Los Angeles ruled this week.  In his 16-page
ruling, Judge A. Howard Matz of the U.S. District Court found it
has been too long since Einstein's 1955 death for anyone to
limit the use of his likeness.  The ruling came in a lawsuit
filed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which claims to control
Einstein's rights of publicity because it was a beneficiary in
his will.   The ad, which ran only once, in People magazine,
showed Einstein's face pasted onto a muscular body. It carried
the slogan "Ideas are sexy too."  Hebrew University sued in
2010, arguing GM had no right to Einstein's image and the
university should be able to win d