Japan expert advisory panel OKs protection of voice rights

The panel has discussed issues related to civil liability over the unauthorised use of voices and portraits of famous individuals through generative artificial intelligence.

The ministry said it wants legal professionals, rights holders and businesses to use the report, released Friday, widely as guidelines.

As the country has seen no court rulings regarding the right to voice, there has not been sufficient understanding about what acts constitute law violations.
   
The report said that voice is also a symbol of the personalities of individuals and therefore subject to protection under the right of publicity, which allows celebrities to control the commercial value of their names and images.
   
Damages can be sought for the infringements of the right of voice, according to the report.
   

As an example, the report cites a case of someone gaining profits by creating, with the use of AI, a music source in which a song is sung with the voice of a singer or voice actor without his or her permission and posting it on social media.
   
Even if the voice in the music source is not the same as that of the singer or voice actor, the act could constitute a violation of the right of publicity if they resemble each other in terms of the characteristics of the voices and the ways of singing or if information that may be associated with the professional is included.
   
Right violation could also be possible even in case of a post uploaded out of curiosity, not for profit, if the act is intended to gain followers or views and causes business disadvantages to such a professional, the report says.
   
The panel was set up in April, and its members, including experts on intellectual property law and the Civil Code, held five meetings to compile the report.
   
The ministry plans to make the panel report known widely in cooperation with other government agencies.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]