Celebrity deepfakes are all the ragenot only to record videos on social networks but also to shoot advertising without asking permission. From the case Bruce Willis as far as Tom Cruise e Leonardo DiCaprioup to Elon Musk. But what boundaries (legal and ethical) exist when someone’s face is “stolen”?
Celebrity deepfakes used in advertisements, even without permission
Last year the Russian telecommunication company MegaFon had used the face of Bruce Willis to defuse a bomb in a commercial. It was unclear whether or not Willis had granted his rights. And given the actor’s recent health problems Die Hard, recently someone thought that the actor had sold his image rights. But the denial came quickly: who shoots advertising with the deepfake di Willis he does so without his permission, according to his publicist.
A month ago a video from Paperspace Co. used characters that looked a little too similar to Tom Cruise e Leonardo DiCaprio (so much so that they then removed the video from YouTube) and only last week the startup reAlpha Tech Corp used the appearance (and name) of Elon Musk for an advertising video.
None of them spent a single second in the studio filming the commercial. Nor did he give consent why used their faces in advertising. All of these cases seem mostly parodies, with the animation still too ‘woody’ to really convince anyone that both the real celebrity and not a deepfake. But image rights experts and AI ethics are wondering if this use of technology does not cross a limit.
The right to one’s face
The use of authorized deepfake by celebrities it could allow advertisers to create advertisements while lowering costs. They shouldn’t organize a set, shift everyone’s agenda to match that of the ‘talent’. And above all by lowering the costs they could create new original products, funny commercials and more. With the actors who would be paid for doing nothing, essentially.
But deepfakes without direct permission fall into a gray area. On the one hand, why they could be used against the wishes of the celebrity in question. For example, DiCaprio, a well-known ecologist, could end up advertising for an oil company like deepfake, while he would not agree to do it in person. And then the sheer ‘amount’ of deepfake could lower the value of the image especially of actors and other artistsi: if we saw Tom Cruise every day in commercials where he does daring actions, would it have an impact on the sales of the next Mission Impossible?
Celebrity deepfake in advertising: what’s the legal situation?
For the moment, the problem in many countries is a lack of laws that make clear the legal risk of using deepfakes without consent. In recent years, laws have appeared prohibiting the use of deepfakes in porn videos for avoid revenge-pornor have some nations banned them when they impersonate a political figure (as happened this spring in Zelensky, for example). And the EU is working to make it difficult to use them to disseminate fake news. But with regard to “commercial uses” such as advertising, everything remains vague.
Deepfake di Zelensky
In the US, some celebrities have gotten the videos removed by citing the legal precedent of Woody Allen’s $ 5 million plea deal, whose face was used on a billboard in 2009.
However, the aforementioned deepfakes from Paperspace and reAlpha use declear disclaimers that they were ‘fake’ and they claim they were satire. In other words, they shouldn’t pay royalties to celebrities the way comedians don’t imitano DiCaprio e Cruise al Saturday Night Live, for instance. An excuse that could hardly hold up in the courtroom. But that could avert some subpoena, making the risk of using deepfakes profitable: legal fees will not exceed advertising revenue, according to the companies.
A future full of deepfake commercials awaits us
Some legal experts in America claim that more and more the actors will include in their contracts, before shooting a movie or series, that the their interpretations cannot be used in deepfakes. But those who create these simulations will most likely just use social videos or old scenes to educate the AI. The result will be of lower quality, but equally effective.
This trend does not seem destined to die out. At least without clear legislative intervention, which seems unlikely at the moment. So, once again, the consumers will make the difference: it will depend on how much we watch and listen to commercials with celebrity deepfakes.
Source
The Wall Street Journal