Here’s the story:
I saw a band in a recording studio. There was a Q & A session involved (and recorded). I was told I could have a copy of the session if I gave them my address. They later informed me that the record company had requested that the session be unreleased, as it is under copyright. I never signed anything.
Is the section where I talk in that recording my own intellectual property?
WAG: You know when you go to a baseball game and the back of your ticket says “We can use your image for anything we want” in teeny tiny print? Maybe you fell victim to something like that.
You didn’t sign anything, but did you need some form of ID or a ticket to get in? If it was some kind of contest, maybe the fine print was on the entry form.
Even if your voice is captured and used during that Q&A, it’s fairly well understood that the law that Troy alluded to holds in this case. You entered that studio with no prior contract or agreement for your “services” as a member of the studio audience. You have no claim over the use of your voice in the context of the Q&A.
If your words as spoken were taken out of context or re-edited in a way that caused you harm ( in the legal sense ), then my WAG would be that you have a case. If for example you spoke at length, articulating your question with enough sentences that a crafty sound editor could use your words to make a sentence that represented you in an unfavorable or illegal light, then yeah.
Otherwise, you are witness to a performance that is covered under copywright.
I spent a few years working on those Friday morning concerts in Bryant Park that were put on and aired by ABC’s Good Morning America program. People were allowed to gather from the middle of the night on, stand in line, and then get up close and watch their fave performer, live on t.v. Their face and sometimes clearly understood voice was used in a broadcast situation. I do not recall even seeing signs posted informing the public that they agreed to allow their likeness and vocal likeness to be used in the broadcast, by entering Bryant Park.
This is 2003. People appear in live concerts, music videos and the like all the time. No compensation is proferred. If Production REALLY wants to be sticky wicky about it, they use a blanket personal release for EACH person on camera, regardless of how many hundreds there are, and in exchange for exactly one dollar, they agree to release said company etc., etc. Yes. One dollar. That person at the door? You hand them your completed release form, they hand you a dollar. Quid Pro Quo.
If you signed no release, BUT that studio was rented privately by that band, I’m thinkin’ you haven’t got a case at all.
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