(Issue) Lady Gaga is an established musician who bears intellectual rights to her music. During her opening act during her 2017-2018 concert series, she came on stage wearing a red wig and a long white as she sang “Bad Romance.” From this point, Gaga marked this look at the Staple Center in Los Angeles as her signature opening look during her next 45 concerts throughout Europe and the United States. One year after the Staple Center concert, on December 9, 2018, Apple released their new Mini Mini Mini Pad , which they advertised with a video of a robot wearing a red wig entering the stage in a large auditorium as it rode an elephant while singing “Bad Romance .” It is interesting that the singing voice in this ad belonged to Miley Cyrus yet neither E Television nor Gaga’s recording company had permitted or licensed either Miley Cyrus or Apple to use her music. This is a copyright issue where Apple used Lady Gaga’s song for their advertisement for Mini Mini Mini Pad without receiving any licensing or permission from Lady Gaga.
(Rule) According to (hg.org, 2019) , copyright is an intellectual legal right that exists in multiple countries, and it grants the original legal owner of a given work, particularly in the entertainment industry, the exclusive rights of ownership for their product. That said, the owner has the legal right to decide whether, and under what circumstances, their original work may be utilized by other people. This legal right is usually only for a limited time. While these exclusive rights are not always absolute, they are limited by the exceptions and limitations to copyright law, and this includes fair use of an intellectual property. All the same, copyright law has a limitation when it comes to copyright on ideas because the law only protects and covers the original presentation of an idea without much focus on the underlying idea itself.
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(Application) Considering and analyzing this issue from the perspective of copyright law, it is evident that Lady Gaga has a case to present. This issue of an outright replication of Lady Gaga by using a robot that has been designed to replicate her personality and singing her music without her permission or licensing is a major breach of Lady Gaga's intellectual rights. The only difference, in this case, is the fact that the video uses the voice of Miley Cyrus and not Lady Gaga's. That said, Apple is using the persona of Lady Gaga to market their new Mini Mini Mini Pad , meaning that they are making a lot of money and attracting customers on Lady Gaga’s account without giving her a share of her rightful earnings from the device they are marketing, as the intellectual and copyright law demands.
In a situation where Apple would have used the video of the robot riding into the stage in a large auditorium while wearing a red wig and riding an elephant without singing Bad Romance, then Lady Gaga would not have had a legal claim in this issue. This is because she had not yet licensed the look despite the fact that she had used it as a representation of herself in over 46 concerts across Europe and the United States. Apple crossed the line when the company decided to use the artist's intellectual property to make money without licensing. Another issue that presents itself, in this case, is the fact that the robot that was singing Bad Romance was in the voice of Miley Cyrus and not Lady Gaga's. As it seems, Lady Gaga only has a claim to her song in this case. All the same, the question is, should Gaga file a complaint against Apple or Miley Cyrus or both? However, understanding that the product that is being marketed belongs to Apple, then Lady Gaga should only file a complaint against Apple and not Miley Cyrus. When considering the circumstances at hand, the intellectual property was used to benefit Apple and not Miley Cyrus. That said, Miley Cyrus is not in any way concerned in this case, whether she knew about Apple's marketing plans or not. The intellectual property rule only covers Apple because they are the ones who are benefiting from the advertisement.
(Conclusion) This is a case of a breach of Lady Gaga's right to ownership of her licensed music. The fact that Apple is using her music without getting her authorization means that the company is benefiting itself at her expense, which is a criminal offense that Lady Gaga should present in court. While the robot was singing ‘Bad Romance’ in the voice of Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga should only impose her legal actions on Apple only, leaving Miley Cyrus out. This is because the copyright and intellectual rule are only presented and imposed against the party who is unlawfully benefiting from using licensed products, and in this case it is Apple.
References
hg.org. (2019). Entertainment Law. Retrieved from https://www.hg.org/entertainment-law.html
