Voice Over

One of the lesser-discussed intellectual property rights is the right of publicity, and until recently, the right to use --or more importantly to stop other people using--ones voice was not much of a problem.

Have you ever telephoned a bank, or brokerage house, or utility company and been bullied by a bot into giving your consent to let them set you up to use your voice to identify yourself as a security short-cut for future "convenience"?

Personally, I have never given any kind of consent to a recording as a means of identifying me. I have always been suspicious of that, and after reading legal blogger Belinda Scrimenti's article for Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP's Broadcast Law Blog about the violation of celebrity voices, I think I was right to be wary.

For any author who reads an excerpt of her book in public or on social media, records her own audio book, does an interview on a podcast or radio, maybe you should think twice about giving any business permission to recognize you by your voice.

If you are not a celebrity, your voice might not be used to endorse a product, point of view, or a political candidate that you would never recommend without extreme duress, but it could be used to steal your identity, or your money, or both.

The Broadcast Law Blog discusses the misuse of living and deceased celebrities' voices that is now possible owing to AI with some interesting examples. Apparently, a bot only needs to hear sixty seconds worth of someone's voice to be able to make them seem to say almost anything.

They don't say it, but I will, this could be seriously misused in political smear campaigns.

https://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2023/04/articles/using-ai-to-replicate-the-voice-of-a-celebrity-watch-out-for-legal-issues-including-violating-the-right-of-publicity/#page=1

Belinda Scrimenti explains the right of publicity thus:

"The right of publicity is a right that is based on state laws. Elvis Presley’s estate was one of the forerunners in advancing legislation to protect publicity rights in Tennessee, but laws now exist in most states that protect the use of living individuals’ name, image, likenesses, and other identifying features, which includes the voice."

Another interesting source is Seth Resler on "How To Use AI To Impersonate Celebrity Voices (And Why You Probably Shouldn't)."

Since I mentioned banking, I am reminded of the old proverb that I suspect is not taught to children in school these days: All that glitters is not gold. (My search engine associates the proverb with SpongeBob.) It is a shame, because the Trojan Horse of Homer's Iliad was very much something that appeared to be desirable, and was not. 

There are whispers of a convenient and trendy move by brilliant minds in high office to create a digital currency that might work very fast indeed, and that will be centrally managed, rendering banks obsolete. 

In dystopian novels, such a wonderful system would mean that individuals would be unable to purchase socially undesirable products such as cigarettes, briquettes, fortified beverages, drinking straws, flammable liquids made by nature from jurassic plankton, or even toilet paper. As an added convenience, it would be impossible to do anything without carrying around a portable tracking system.

All the best, 

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/  

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing