Tom Waits takes down Volkswagen-Audi in landmark legal battle in Spain // canavarlar

Anti artist Tom Waits recently won a landmark legal case establishing the
moral rights of a musician to his likeness. This was the first case of it's kind
in Spain, and Waits took on car manufacturer Volkswagen-Audi (VAESA)
and a Spanish production company for adapting one of Waits’ songs and
impersonating his voice in a television commercial.

The case is particularly notable because it acknowledging an artist’s voice
as his creative work. Waits, of course, is well-known for his distinctive
vocals and style. The commercial, for Audi cars, was originally screened in
Spain in 2000. As well as having much the same melodic structure as the
Tom Waits’ song ‘Innocent When You Dream’, the commercial’s music was
arranged like the song and featured a Tom Waits’ vocal impersonation.

At the time of making the commercial Tandem Campany Guasch had sought
permission to use Waits’ original version of ‘Innocent When You Dream’, a
request he rejected.

The judgement is the latest in a line of successful legal actions the fiercely
independent Waits has taken to prevent his music and image from being
associated with commercial products. He has most recently filed suit
against General Motors’ Opel and the advertising agency McCann Erickson
in Frankfurt, Germany, for producing and broadcasting a series of car
commercials that used a perfect impersonation of Waits’ singing voice.

http://www.punknews.org/article.php?sid=15408