Using impersonators has its own issues. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midler_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
According to a quick google search, even cover bands performing live are required to pay royalties to the original artists whose songs they're performing.
Maybe there's some loophole when using an artist's likeness while changing the actual music and lyrics, I don't know.
But "protected speech" isn't meant to be a way to make money off of other people's work.
Curious what part of "Midler v. Ford Motor Co" you think wouldn't apply to a musical performance.
It's more than that. If you were part of a band and now you are solo (plenty of cases), you need to pay your old band if you play an old song you were part of (unless you own 100% of the lyrics and music rights, which is rare).
By the way, I am totalyl OK with this deal/agreement/way of doing things.
Do I need to ask permission to impersonate Eminem during a comedy performance? How about during a musical performance?
The answer is no. This is fair use 101.
If you cover a song of his while doing an impersonation then this is covered by the performance fees the venue you’re playing at pays every year to ASCAP and BMI.
Interesting. I guess you consider the use of Eminem’s voice to be an ‘in the style of’. I think, being trained on Eminem songs, it’s more like a sample.
The example I like (even though Weird Al always obtains permission so doesn't need Free Speech protection) is "Smells Like Nirvana" compared to "Fat".
Smells Like Nirvana is satire. The thing criticised is Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and the wider Grunge phenomenon it exemplifies. Al's song talks about how Kurt's lyrics are mumbled and hard to understand, "It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss / With all these marbles in my mouth", and about how it's too loud so it'll annoy your mom and dad, "We're so loud and incoherent / Boy, this oughta bug your parents". This can't work if Al uses Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" instead of Teen Spirit.
"Fat" isn't satire. Michael Jackson wasn't obese or even overweight, and his song isn't causing people to eat too much junk food, Al's song is just using the outline structure of Jackson's "Bad" because that fits and his new song is funny. If his lyrics had fitted better to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" that would have been fine.
The answer is maybe. See the case I cited above.
> This is fair use 101.
Voices are not copyrightable so fair use doesn't seem terribly relevant here.
This means he wasn’t paid for the performance, is that correct?
Because otherwise doing it for paid performances and promoting it on social media but saying “it’s not commercial bro” doesn’t seem very genuine
Midler pursued a common law judgment against Ford for using her distinctive voice without her authorization. The appellate court pondered the question of whether or not an artist's voice is a distinctive personal feature over which a person has controlling rights from appropriation. Midler was not seeking damages for copyright infringement of the song itself, but rather for the use of her voice which she claimed was distinctive of her person as a singer. The recognition of Midler's voice in the commercial was found to be the intentional motivation and a major feature of the commercial.
This is a common law right to publicity. This is our common law right to be in control of our likeness.
David Guetta is being paid but he is not being paid by the promoters or the audience because he says he is Eminem so there is no reasonable claim to a violation of Eminem's common law right to publicity.
Whereas with Midler, the commercial production crew was seen by the jury to be paying an artist to convince an audience that Bette Midler was endorsing the product.
These are completely different situations.