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Identity Protection: Copyright, Right of Publicity, and the Artist's Negative Voice

Klein, Jeff
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395585265

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music Ethnomusicology.
What do you value most about your voice? As ethnomusicological studies of the voice expand, so must our understanding of what voice even means. Voice must entail more than just a sonic phenomenon, but must also relate to ideology, to our very identity, even. This thesis will fuse ethnomusicological and legal perspectives to explore how American and, to a lesser extent, international copyright law and other legal mechanisms protect more than just a musician's economic interest, but also his very identity. I will explore the right of publicity and the concept of moral rights and how they relate to voice and identity. The right of publicity is a musician's right to protect his identity as well as his copyrighted works while moral rights is the right of a musician to prevent certain uses of his work even when he has assigned the copyright of that work to another. This thesis will suggest a theoretical framework for investigating the voice as an intangible legal marker of identity. I argue that the voice protected by law is positioned as both sonic and metaphorical agent and encompasses not only the act of vocalization, but inaction as well. In my model, the positive voice is the manner in which we express our ideology by speech or by action. It requires affirmative action and intent on the musician's part. The negative voice, however, is the idea that we can also speak loudly through our silence. Sometimes silence is merely the absence of sound, but sometimes it reflects an ideological stance on a particular issue. Sometimes we are given the opportunity to affirmatively act, but we choose not to in order to communicate our opposition to a concept, decision, course of action, or some other ideological position. These “statements” are every bit as vital to a musician's identity and integrity as their affirmative actions are. One example of this concept is demonstrated in Tom Waits' lawsuit against Frito-Lay. In that case, a Waits sound-alike was used in a commercial, which led people to believe Waits himself was endorsing the product. Waits, however, had a long-standing and very public opposition to musicians endorsing products. The association created by the commercials impugned his credibility by casting doubt upon his negative voice. This thesis will examine where copyright law protects identity and where it falls short and how the right of publicity fills in the gaps to provide comprehensive protection for a musician's voice in the broadest sense. It will provide a background on the scope of copyright law, as well as how it has historically developed to protect more than just work-product, but also the musician's very identity. It will then explore the right of publicity and moral rights and how those ideas fit into the general legal scheme of copyright protection. I will accomplish this through interviews with musicians, as well as explorations of current scholarly work on identity, copyright, voice, the right of publicity, and moral rights. I will also explore important legal cases and relevant statutes in these areas, such as Tom Waits v. Frito-Lay, Bette Midler v. Ford Motor Company and the Copyright Act of 1976. These explorations can help us understand how musicians can protect their identity by protecting their ideological, as well as their physical, voices.
Katherine Meizel, PhD (Advisor)
Kara Attrep, PhD (Committee Member)
Jeremy Wallach, PhD (Committee Member)
108 p.
Music
copyright; right of publicity; identity; voice; negative voice; positive voice; ideological voice; individual identity; collective identity; self; moral rights; ethics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Klein, J. (2014). Identity Protection: Copyright, Right of Publicity, and the Artist's Negative Voice [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395585265

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Klein, Jeff. Identity Protection: Copyright, Right of Publicity, and the Artist's Negative Voice. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395585265.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Klein, Jeff. "Identity Protection: Copyright, Right of Publicity, and the Artist's Negative Voice." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395585265

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.