The Bombay High Court granted relief to famous Bollywood singer Arijit Singh in the latter's ongoing voice cloning case. The court prohibited platforms and individuals from using AI tools to copy the singer's voice and issued an injunction till September 3 as per a Bar and Bench report.
The bench was headed by Justice R.I Chagla for the case Arijit Singh v. Codible Ventures LLP and Ors. Justice Chagla said the restriction on AI tools is necessary to protect the 'Personality Rights' of the singer. Cloning of the singer's voice by AI platforms will have a serious impact on his career leading to economic harm.
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Justice Chagla said, "The defendants are attracting visitors/ drawing traffic to their websites and AI platforms by capitalising on the Plaintiff's (Arijit Singh's) popularity and reputation, thereby subjecting his personality rights to potential abuse..."
The relief came after Arijit Singh filed an application seeking protection of his personality rights which includes the singer's name, voice, signatures, photograph, caricature, likeness, persona, and various other characteristics of his personality against unauthorised usage.
He added, "This form of technology exploitation not only infringes upon the individual's right to control and protect their likeness and voice but also undermines their ability to prevent commercial and deceptive uses of their identity..."
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As the use of AI tools is becoming more prominent so is the threat of misuse. The deepfake have become easy ways to target popular celebrities. Hence, the court's intervention was the need of the hour.
Recently in April the Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh filed a complaint where a video of him vouching for a political party using the deepfake technology was circulated. The veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan too became prey to the deepfake videos, where he was portrayed promoting sexual health-related products.
The Delhi HC last year in September granted similar relief to Actor Anil Kapoor when the court issued an order to restrict social media and e-commerce platforms from unauthorised use of the actor's voice.
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