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Comment by sangnoir | Hacker News Reader

> There is a very strong music copyright system in the US and in the Tom Waits case they had both music and voice impersonation.

The article explicitly mentions the Tom Waits case did not include a copyright component as he didn't own the copyright, and Frito-Lay probably obtained synch rights from the copyright owner.

Tom Waits won the suit without invoking copyright violations - read into that what you may.

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Bette Midler won a similar case where Ford licensed a Midler track and got a sound-a-like to perform it for a commercial.

If OpenAI's lawyers thought they were going to get away with it then OpenAI needs to get better lawyers.

Huge disanalogies between the Midler case and this. Certainly not clear in its applicability.

> then OpenAI needs to get better lawyers.

Part of being a good lawyer is sometimes "well, this didn't work in 1992 (or whatever) but it might fly now. Let's try it, worst case is X". And, as always, the devil is in the details.

Rick Astley v. Hauri is a recent case in the same vein: https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la23-richard-rick-paul-astley-v...

This one is unique because Hauri (aka "Yung Gravy") is another music artist. The Midler case is actually mentioned in the court filings, too.

It's interesting to think about the blurry line between art and commercial products.

Huh TIL, I like the song in question interestingly enough (Yung Gravy - Betty) but didn't know that the Rick Astley bit wasn't actually his voice.

I didn't either until I heard about the lawsuit!

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