The Russian legislators are going to implement the rule in relation to protection of the voice of a person to amend the national Civil Code. According to draft law, the publicizing and further use of a person's voice (including a record containing it or a record containing a person's voice recreated with the help of special technologies) is permitted only with the consent of that person. In case of death of a person, his/her voice may be used only with the consent of next of kin.
Also, the consent is not required in cases such as: the usage of a person's voice is carried out in state, public or other public interests; the person's voice is recorded during video or audio recording, which is carried out in places open to the public (e.g. meetings, congresses, conferences, concerts, performances, sports competitions and similar events), except for cases when the person's voice is the main object of use; the person's voice was recorded for a fee.
In the opinion of Senior Partner of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm Irina Ozolina, this regulation, being fairly similar of another article of the Code - «Protection of Person's Image». The draft law does not take into account the fact that with today's development of technologies it is possible to «tailor» any words that are not typical for individual and to voice thoughts that contradict his or her beliefs. And such use of a person's voice must be severely restricted without individual’s consent, as well as, neither after the death of heirs, nor in public or other public interests. However, as Irina Ozolina believes, the implementation of such regulation can only be welcomed.
Read the full text of the article (in Russian).