Bombay HC ‘Protects’ Arijit Singh’s Personality Rights; Bans AI content using his voice
Bombay HC 'Protects' Arijit Singh's Personality Rights; Bans AI content using his voice
The court observed that celebrities are particularly vulnerable to unauthorized generation of content through AI tools.
August 1, 2024
The Bombay High Court (HC) has granted relief to singer-composer Arijit Singh and said that AI tools generating content using a celebrity’s voice, image, or other attributes without consent violate his or her “personality rights”. The court further observed that celebrities are particularly vulnerable to unauthorized generation of content through AI tools.
Hearing a petition filed by the famous singer, Justice R I Chagla in his interim order on July 26 restrained eight online platforms from using Singh’s “personality rights”, and directed them to remove all such content and also voice conversion tools.
The singer had moved the court claiming that these platforms provide AI tools to synthesize artificial sound recordings by mimicking his voice, mannerisms, and other attributes. Arijit Singh’s lawyer Hiren Kamod said that the singer has consciously refrained from any kind of brand endorsement or gross commercialization of his personality traits for the past several years.
The freedom of speech and expression allows for critique and commentary but does not grant the license to exploit a celebrity’s persona for commercial gain, Justice Chagla said.
Such tools facilitate “unauthorized appropriation and manipulation” of a celebrity’s voice, a key component of their personal identity, Justice Chagla said.
Further, such use of AI technology also undermines celebrities’ ability to prevent “deceptive uses of their identity,” the HC said. The unauthorized use of Singh’s traits were not limited to AI platforms. Another defendant, a pub in Bangalore, used Singh’s name and image to promote an event sans authorization. Yet another defendant was using Singh’s photographs on merchandise sold on e-commerce websites, while another had registered domain names using Singh’s name (arijitsingh.com).
Singh has gained immense goodwill and reputation over the course of a very successful career, the judge noted. “Prima facie, I am of the view that the plaintiff’s personality traits including his name, voice, photograph/ caricature, image, likeness, persona, and other attributes of his personality are protectable elements of his personality rights,” Justice Chagla said. Several YouTube channels were creating memes and GIFs “causing ridicule, embarrassment and humiliation” and affecting the singer’s reputation, it said.
Additionally, it was argued that any unauthorized alteration or dissemination of Singh’s performances which causes harm to his reputation would violate his moral rights under Section 38-B of the Copyright Act, 1957. The Court also ordered the suspension of URLs bearing Singh’s name. The interim relief granted by the Court will continue till September 3, a day after the next hearing is scheduled.
