Law in Contemporary Society

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Do You Want To Dance?

In Midler v. Ford Motor Company, the 9th Circuit created a new right of publicity proscribing the imitation of professional singers’ voices for commercial purposes. Bette Midler, an actress and pop singer, declined to provide vocals for an ad campaign by Ford. Having already purchased the rights to the 1973 hit, "Do You Want To Dance", Ford turned to one of her backup singers, Ula Hedwig, and instructed her to “sound as much as possible like the Bette Midler record.” Although the court dismissed Midler’s copyright, unfair competition, and statutory claims, it found a common law right of publicity: “…when a distinctive voice of a professional singer is widely known and is deliberately imitated in order to sell a product, the sellers have appropriated what is not theirs and have committed a tort…”

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Revision 2r2 - 30 Apr 2008 - 15:24:36 - EbenMoglen
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