AI technologies are increasingly being used to generate realistic videos or sound recordings that imitate the likeness of a person’s face, voice or performance, based on authentic footage.
Current intellectual property laws were created long before deepfake technology existed and therefore do not take its possibilities into account. Performers are legally entitled to control the records made of their work, but this doesn’t apply to digital impersonation.
A study by Dr Mathilde Pavis, from the University of Exeter Law School, suggests that performers should be given copyright over their work to prevent abuse of their personal likeness.
“The regime of performers’ rights could be replaced with a regime of performers’ copyright,” Pavis said. “This small, yet important, change in legal regimes can be the difference between piecemeal, uneven and, therefore, ineffective protection against unauthorised deepfakes and a harmonised international approach to the...