Using an Impersonator to Advertise

[jk]

when you are touting a product, you are implying that person is representing or promoting that product. When you are doing stand up, you are not advertising for a product, service, or whatever.

[BOR]

Thanks Aaron, but to me it's basically the same thing... you're MAKING MONEY either way... either if you're doing an impersonation as a parody to entertain a crowd, or selling a product, you're still using a parody to do it, and making money in both instances. And who says that just just using somebody that's LIKE a celebrity is "misappropriating" a celebrity's identity?... if you're not using the person's name or using any of THEIR original material, it's not misappropriating in my book... then if you're going to say that using an impersonator to sell a product is misappropriating a celebrity's identity, then doing a stand-up act, AND making money doing it, is also misappropriating a celebrity's identity as well... when you're USING a celebrity's identity to make money in both situations, it just seems kind of hypocritical to me to say that one is ok to do, but not the other.

Personally it might be the same thing, but they quite appear to be legally distinguishable.

A commercial endorsment of a parody includes the music adaptation only. By commercial is it not necessarily meant an oral communication. "Commercial", meaning endorsement of a product.


Tabloids publish stories with pictures of celebrities all the time, since this is NOT a commercial endorsement of a product, there is no copyright infringement. A tabloid can have a picture/story of Clint Eastwood, but if it says "Clint says buy our magazine", when he did not, that is a commercial endorsement.

[FullGrownNut]

Personally it might be the same thing, but they quite appear to be legally distinguishable.

A commercial endorsment of a parody includes the music adaptation only. By commercial is it not necessarily meant an oral communication. "Commercial", meaning endorsement of a product.


Tabloids publish stories with pictures of celebrities all the time, since this is NOT a commercial endorsement of a product, there is no copyright infringement. A tabloid can have a picture/story of Clint Eastwood, but if it says "Clint says buy our magazine", when he did not, that is a commercial endorsement.

Thanks BOR, that makes sense... but tell me straight out please from what you know, if you do a commercial to endorse a product using an impersonator that only SOUNDS and LOOKS like Rodney Dangerfield, however his name is NOT mentioned, and NONE of his famous funny lines or jokes are used, is that infringing upon intellectual property?... to me that's a straight out parody, and does not cross any legal boundaries... my friend does the voice of Rodney SO good, that even void of what I mentioned in the commercial, people would definitely know it's a Rodney Dangerfield impersonation... that's the ONLY thing that is going to make this idea effective since, like I said, we're not using his name or any of his material... thanks for your help.

[BOR]

I'm not a lawyer, but use of a person's likeness or image can possibly be an infringement, one does not have to use the actual name.


Best course of action, write his former agent, and ask how to go about getting permission and OR consult an IP attoreny for a preliminary opinion.