The Bombay High Court in a recent order has granted interim relief to singer Arijit Singh in a copyright suit filed by him against Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms and others for violation of his personality rights. The high court ruled that converting anyone's voice into that of a celebrity without the celebrity's permission violates the celeb's personality rights. The court further highlighted how performers are especially vulnerable to AI content, which could potentially jeopardise their livelihood.
A bench of justice RI Chagla observed that such a use of technology infringes upon the individual’s right to control and protect their own likeness and voice and also undermines their ability to prevent commercial and deceptive uses of their identity.
The high court granted relief to Arijit Singh by ruling that his name, voice, image, likeness, and other attributes of his personality are protectable elements of his personality rights and right to publicity.
The court noted that the AI platforms are drawing traffic to their websites by capitalising on the Arijit Singh's popularity and reputation, thereby subjecting Singh's personality rights to potential abuse.
"These Defendants are emboldening internet users to create counterfeit sound recordings and videos that misuse the Plaintiff’s (Arijit Singh) character and identity...Additionally, allowing the Defendants to continue using the Plaintiff’s name, voice, likeness etc. in the form of an AI content, without consent of the Plaintiff, not only risks severe economic harm to the Plaintiff’s life/career, but also leaves room for opportunities for misutilization of such tools by unscrupulous individuals for nefarious purposes," the high court noted in its order.
Arijit Singh moved Bombay High Court seeking protection of his name, voice, signature, photograph, image, caricature, likeness and various other attributes of his personality.
The court was informed that AI platforms were using sophisticated algorithms to create audio and visual content by mimicking his personality traits. For instance, one of the platforms used a text-to-speech software that allowed users to convert text into Arijit Singh's voice.
Singh also filed a suit against a Bangalore pub, that used Singh's name and image to promote an event without his authorisation. Another person was found using Singh's photographs on merchandise sold on e-commerce websites. Singh also told court that another person was running a website called arijitsingh.com by using his name. The high court also orders suspension of URL of the said website.
The high court after hearing all parties granted of interim relief to Singh and said that freedom of speech allows critique and commentary, it does not grant the license to exploit a celebrity's persona for commercial gain.