Soundalikes?

Eugene Volokh wrote:

>> >Re: Soundalikes:
> If I consciously try to make a
>record that sounds exactly like, say, Sean Colvin singing "Every
>Breath You Take," I won't be infringing the copyright in Colvin's
>sound recording. I'll be copying (though not by physically
>recording the sounds) her expression, not just the original. But
>I still won't be infringing.

So musical soundalikes are an exception to the rule that one can't reproduce another's protected expression without infringing? (as long as one pays the mechanical royalties to the writer, anyway).

So if Bruce Springsteen covered a song sung by Frank Sinatra but written by Gershwin, and he sang it in a fashion to sound EXACTLY like Sinatra, Springsteen would not infringe on Sinatra at all but on Gershwin? And he wouldn't infringe even on Gershwin if he paid mech/negotiated royalties? Wouldn't this destroy the market for Sinatra's version, though? And we would then have a substantially similar version with damaging market impact that doesn't infringe???

regards,
scott fedewa
<fedewacs[_at_]leland.stanford.edu> Received on Sun Dec 18 1994 - 20:39:11 GMT