- Joined
- Mar 5, 2019
Since John Goodman brought up Waits v. Frito-Lay, I was looking around for similar cases, and saw Bette Midler v Ford. Similar case to Waits: Midler was approached to do a song for Ford. She refused. Ford bought rights to the song and hired a soundalike (one of her backup singers, in fact), to sing. Apparently the imitation was real good.
She sued, and lost at summary judgment at the trial court. Ninth Circus picked it up. They found since Midler's voice (she was a well known singer) was an important part of her celebrity status, misappropriating it was tortious. They did make a note that the voice had to be an important facet to the plaintiff's identity, and that her voice was widely known.
This could be a set up for some really weird legal precedents.
For example, while sure, Lindbeck uses her voice for her work, she doesn't use one voice. Since she fits her voice to different roles, it could be argued that her voice isn't a distinct identity.
It also has to be widely known. This was brought up back in the Vic Mignogna case, whether an anime VA was widely known enough to be considered a public figure. It was never conclusively settled since Ty Beard is a moron, but there could be arguments for an against any given voice actor (specifically, a voice actor's voice) being considered widely known enough to be protected.
This of course assumes there is tangible damages, which a parody song doesn't give.
She sued, and lost at summary judgment at the trial court. Ninth Circus picked it up. They found since Midler's voice (she was a well known singer) was an important part of her celebrity status, misappropriating it was tortious. They did make a note that the voice had to be an important facet to the plaintiff's identity, and that her voice was widely known.
This could be a set up for some really weird legal precedents.
For example, while sure, Lindbeck uses her voice for her work, she doesn't use one voice. Since she fits her voice to different roles, it could be argued that her voice isn't a distinct identity.
It also has to be widely known. This was brought up back in the Vic Mignogna case, whether an anime VA was widely known enough to be considered a public figure. It was never conclusively settled since Ty Beard is a moron, but there could be arguments for an against any given voice actor (specifically, a voice actor's voice) being considered widely known enough to be protected.
This of course assumes there is tangible damages, which a parody song doesn't give.