I heard an ad today that got me thinking about this. Some local business had a radio ad that used someone impersonating Austin Powers (very poorly) to sell something or other. Could they be sued? Is this maybe why they used someone who quite obviously wasn’t really Mike Myers speaking as Austin?
On another note, could a voice actor claim ownership to the voice they’ve created? In other words, could Dan Castalenetta do a radio ad as Homer Simpson w/o permission from Groenig and whoever owns the Simpsons since he created the voice? Could the owners of the Simpsons use Homer’s voice w/o Castalenetta’s permission?
A character can be copyrighted, and a voice is part of that. I’m not sure that a voice can be copyrighted by itself.
Recent court cases involving Carlos Santana and Tom Waite do seem to permit the possibility that “distinct” elements of a performer’s act are subject to some level of protection, at least if copied in advertising. I think it verges more on trademark-ish thought than on copyright. I believe the matters were resolved in favor of the plaintiffs (Santana) on the basis that there could be some confusion as to whether or not the performer with whom a distinct “sound” was generally associated was or was no actually endorsing the product.
With regard to the Austin Powers imitation, an obvious spoof would likely be classified as parody and protected under the first amendment. If the commercial imitated AP and was obviously not Mike Meyers and not trying to convince people it was, not a problem.
Castellenata as Homer is more complicated; he was hired to give voice to this character, which he did not create. He does not own the character, so can’t act as the character outside the scope of his employment (which is not through Groening, but rather Fox if Fox directly produces the Simpsons or whatever company actually produces the series). Whoever owns the rights controls the dialogue that he has voiced for the show, but not his voice at other times; by the same token, he has no rights to the character but is paid to act as the character’s voice.
With regard to the series owner using Castellanata’s voice, C has signed over the right to use his voice in the series, but may or may not have signed over endorsement power; he probably doesn’t have control over how the old cartoons are used, but may or may not (depending on contract) have a right to refuse to give voice to new phrases for commercial use.
With regard to the voice itself being copyrighted, it’s the expression of an idea that’s copyrighted; sound can be copyrighted, but while it’s difficult for me to conceptualize anyone but the actor copyrighting the voice, the voice itself has no impact without key phrases (Doh!) expressed in that voice. Also, I can’t imagine an actor giving someone else control over their voice! (assuming as with Lisa Simpson, that the character speaks with the actor’s normal voice).
In re: Santana and Wait; that’s a different issue entirely. Confusion may be created in the marketplace by an imitation that is close enough to fool enough people, which is a trademark issue.