Singer Roberto Carlos activated STF (Supreme Court) v Federal Representative Tererica (PL-SP), who mocks Song “The Gate” in an election advertisement.
“I voted, and I will vote again. Tererica, Brasilia is your place,” the parliamentarian sings in the video.
The singer’s team appealed to the court after the TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) rejected a lawsuit that asked the parliamentarian to remove the video and pay R$50,000 compensation for misuse of the work. For Roberto Carlos’ lawyer, the reinterpretation “misleads voters and the general public, and causes an unjustified association between Terica and Roberto Carlos”.
However, the judge who heard the case considered that the parody is not intended to reproduce the original work and is not derogatory, and therefore does not infringe the rights of the character.
The actress’s lawyer, Leticia Providel, appealed the decision. “Although parodies for political purposes are permitted, the right to an image should not be confused with the right to parody associated with a work—and never an image of the author and artist. It is not merely a satirical song based on his work, but the use of his image associated with politics, which led to a false endorsement by the singer of his campaign.”
This is not the first time that Roberto Carlos has sued Tererica. In 2014, he filed a lawsuit for the same reason, but the STJ (Supreme Court of Justice) rejected it, arguing that the parody is not inconsistent with copyright law.
