Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO talent?

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MIDI Life Crisis
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Not to mention misspelling Mr Rickles name on communications! LOL.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by Phil O »

Dude, you should be a proof reader. You're really good at it. My spelling is the pits and my typing is even worse. I probably have more misspeliggs than anyone else on the board.

Getting back on topic - I had a woman in the studio a few years ago who was doing some radio spots for a local station. She sounded a lot like a famous politician, but was not impersonating her. She got a cease and desist notice from a legal firm. Sucked for her (and for me). I lost that gig. :( Hmm, I wonder whatever happened to her. I think she should have fought it.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by bayswater »

I thought he was talking about Don Wrinkles. Rickles: isn't he old enough to be public domain?
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by James Steele »

Perhaps it's one of those situations where if it really IS the person who sounds like the celebrity's REAL voice, it's okay? If you're not attempting to do an impression. If someone dug up a YouTube video of the person who did the VO speaking in their normal and *different* voice, they might have an issue.

For example, I believe it's that way with legal names of persons. If you were born with the name "Don Rickles" but weren't the comedian, but it was your legal name given to you at birth and you decided to go into comedy and do shows, there really isn't a case against you. If you could show that it was your given legal name and there was no intent to defraud, under the law, nobody can force you to use a different name.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

There's a guy in LA (I forgot his name) who naturally sounds EXACTLY like Henry Fonda. He has been narrating nature programs on PBS and elsewhere for years and people hire him for both that and his excellent delivery skills. So apparently it is OK if it's your natural voice tonality.

To answer FM's ? about just how unique each voice is, IMO each voice is unique - at least to my ear.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by FMiguelez »

MIDI Life Crisis wrote: To answer FM's ? about just how unique each voice is, IMO each voice is unique - at least to my ear.
Agreed.
But I wonder how many we can recognize as unique before the brain starts to get confused.

I found these articles via Goggle Scholar. I'm beginning to read them:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 190400638X

http://m.pnas.org/content/100/17/10038.short
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Thanks for the link. That's too far outside my area of interest to examine.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by stubbsonic »

If there was proof that the advertiser wanted a project that featured a "sound-alike" talent -- say, in the form of an email with ... "let's get someone who sounds like Sting to sing something."

(I can spell "sting".)
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Yeah, but how do you spell relief?
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by mikehalloran »

This is a legal question. It is best handled by lawyers.

Yes we are all entitled to our opinions - as long as no one takes them seriously and makes decisions based on anything posted here.

People can and do get sued over this issue successfully. Other people get away with it. Even parody has its pitfalls if you are imitating someone known for imitating others.

When in doubt, pay for an informed opinion.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

mikehalloran wrote:This is a legal question. It is best handled by lawyers.
That should go without saying.
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Re: Legalities / Ethical implications of sound-alike VO tale

Post by Darcycpoes »

It probably relates more to trademarks than other aspects. You can get away with parody impersonation but there is value connected with endorsements.
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