Re: permission from interviewees

On 97-10-22, Hilary Cantwell <hilary[_at_]deakin.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Our copyright permissions officer recently requested permission from
> a radio station to make several hundred audio cassette copies of an
> interview it had broadcast. The cassettes are to be sent to students
> as part of their course material. There will be no charge to the
> students.
>
> The radio station gave permission for the cassettes to be made BUT
> said that we should also obtain permission from the interviewees.
>
> Please accept the following as given:
> (a) obtaining permission from the interviewees is not a condition
> of the licence the radio station has granted us; and
> (b) there are no other copyrights involved (ie the interviewees are
> simply chatting away, and don't do anything such as read extracts from
> any other copyright work).
>
> Can anyone think of any basis for need to get permission from the
> individual interviewees? "Passing off" would not seem to be relevant,
> nor would other "misleading and deceptive conduct"-type trade practices
> (anti-trust) issues.
>
> I am wondering if I have missed something here......
>
> Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

This may raise an issue concerning personality rights. Here in Quebec the courts have consistently maintained that permission to use one's voice or image must be narrowly interpreted. More specifically, the scope of any consent granted is limited to the purpose for which the consent was granted in the first place. In other words, consenting to be interviewed on a radio program is not in itself sufficient consent for that interview to be used in a matter other than for broadcast. A specific consent to have that interviewed used in an educational context would be necessary.

If the law is similar in Australia, then the radio station may be right in asking that you seek the interviewee's release.

In any case, I do not think that this is an IP issue.

Emil Pellicer
Colby, Monet, Demers, Delage & Crevier
Montreal, QC
Canada
Tel. (514) 284-3663
Fax. (514) 284-1961
<epellicer[_at_]colby-monet.com> Received on Thu Oct 23 1997 - 13:57:26 GMT