ARIJIT SINGH WINS CASE AGAINST AI PLATFORMS (MIMICKING HIS VOICE TO CREATE SONGS)

Key Highlights

Court Ruling on Personality Rights: The Bombay High Court ruled in favor of Bollywood singer Arijit Singh, granting him interim relief by recognizing his personality rights. The court held that using Singh’s voice, name, and likeness without permission for commercial purposes violates his rights and can threaten his livelihood.
Unauthorized AI Exploitation: The case highlights the unauthorized use of AI to mimic Singh’s voice and persona, leading to potential commercial and personal harm. The court emphasized that such AI-generated content without consent infringes on a celebrity’s right to control their own identity and can lead to economic damage.
Scope of Protection: Singh sought legal protection against the unauthorized commercial use of his name, voice, and likeness, including unauthorized event promotions and merchandise. The court’s decision underscores the importance of safeguarding a celebrity’s persona from exploitation by AI and other means.

Bombay High Court Ruling in Favor of Arijit Singh

‘This form of technological 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,’ the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of Arijit Singh.

Interim Relief Granted

The Bombay High Court has granted interim relief to singer Arijit Singh on 26^th July 2024, in his copyright suit (Arijit Singh v. Codible Ventures LLP, Interim Application (L) No. 23460 of 2024) against artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and others for violating his personality rights. Justice Riyaz Iqbal Chagla noted that Singh’s name, voice, image, likeness, persona, and other traits are protectable under his personality rights and right to publicity. The Court stated that using a celebrity’s voice without permission violates their personality rights.

Technological Exploitation and Its Impact

“This form of technological exploitation not only infringes upon the individual’s right to control and protect their own likeness and voice but also undermines their ability to prevent commercial and deceptive uses of their identity,” Bar and Bench quoted the court ruling. The Bombay High Court highlighted performers’ vulnerability to AI content targeting, threatening their livelihood. The defendants attract visitors to their sites and AI platforms by exploiting the plaintiff’s fame, risking the plaintiff’s personality rights, the ruling said.

AI encourages users to create fake recordings and videos misusing the plaintiff’s identity. The Court added that allowing this use without consent risks severe economic harm to the plaintiff’s career and opens opportunities for misuse by malicious individuals.

Scope of Protection Sought by Arijit Singh

Arijit Singh sought court protection for his name, voice, signature, photograph, image, caricature, likeness, and other personality traits. This action followed his discovery that AI platforms mimicked his personality through sophisticated algorithms. One platform even used text-to-speech software to convert text into his voice.

Unauthorized Use Beyond AI Platforms – Use in Events and Merchandise

The Bollywood singer’s traits were unauthorizedly used beyond AI platforms. A pub in Bangalore promoted an event using his name and image without permission. Another party used his photographs on merchandise sold online, and one more registered domain names using his name.

Legal Arguments and Court’s Decision

Singh has exclusive control over his personality traits, and the defendants should be stopped from using these traits commercially without permission to protect his reputation, the singer’s lawyer argued. The lawyer also claimed that unauthorized changes or sharing of Singh’s performances, which could harm his reputation, would violate his moral rights under Section 38-B of the Copyright Act, 1957. The Bombay High Court has granted interim relief to singer Arijit Singh.

Legal Background and Analysis

Personality and Publicity Rights

Singh was seeking protection of his personality rights viz. his name, voice, signatures, photograph, image, caricature, likeness, persona, and various other attributes of his personality against unauthorized/unlicensed commercial exploitation, and misuse of all hues thereof. The present suit also pertained to the violation of his moral rights in his performances conferred upon him by Section 38-B of the Copyright Act, 1957 (‘1957 Act’).

Judicial Opinion

A Single Judge Bench of R.I. Chagla, J., opined that the creation of new audio or video content/songs/videos in Singh’s AI name/voice, photograph, image, likeness, and persona without his consent and commercially using the same could potentially jeopardize plaintiff’s career/livelihood. The Court held that Singh made a strong case for the grant of ad-interim injunction, which might also operate as a dynamic injunction and thus, restrained Defendants from violating the personality rights and/or publicity rights of the Plaintiff by using his (i) name “Arijit Singh”, (ii) voice/vocal style and technique/vocal arrangements and interpretations, (iii) mannerism/manner of singing, (iv) photograph, image or its likeness, (v) signature, persona, and/or any other attributes of his personality in any form, for any commercial and/or personal gain and/or otherwise by exploiting them in any manner whatsoever, without plaintiff’s consent and/or authorization.

The Court relied on Karan Johar v. Indian Pride Advisory Pvt. Ltd., Order dated 13-06-2024 in Interim Application (L) No.17865 of 2024 in Commercial IPR Suit (L) No.17863 of 2024, wherein it was held that personality/publicity rights were vested in celebrities and the unauthorized use of the name or other persona attributes of celebrities would amount to violation of their valuable personality rights and right to publicity. The Court also relied on Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 6914 and opined that plaintiff’s personality traits and/or parts thereof, including his name, voice, photograph/caricature, image, likeness, persona, and other attributes of his personality were protectable elements of his personality rights and right to publicity.

Unauthorized Exploitation

The Court noted that Defendants were unauthorizedly using Singh’s personality traits such as name, image, likeness, etc. and it also appeared that such illegal exploitation of Singh’s personality rights and right to publicity by Defendants was for commercial and personal gain. The Court opined that making AI tools available that enable the conversion of any voice into that of a celebrity without his/her permission constituted a violation of the celebrity’s personality rights. Such tools facilitate unauthorized appropriation and manipulation of a celebrity’s voice, which was a key component of their personal identity and public persona.

Conclusion

The Bombay High Court’s decision in Arijit Singh’s case marks a noteworthy step in the legal protection of personality rights amid the rising influence of artificial intelligence. By addressing the unauthorized use of AI to replicate a celebrity’s voice and persona, the court has set a precedent for safeguarding individual identity against technological exploitation. As AI tools continue to evolve, this ruling emphasizes the need for such legal frameworks that ensure that personal likeness and creative assets are not misappropriated for commercial gain. Singh’s victory not only affirms the protection of personal rights but also highlights the broader implications for all public figures navigating the complexities of modern digital landscapes.

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