Japan seeks to regulate unauthorized commercial use of celebrity voices and photos cloned by AI

The Japanese government is pursuing a plan to legally regulate the unauthorized use of other people's voices or photos for commercial purposes using artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 14th, the previous day, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry presented a specific plan to a meeting of relevant experts to regulate the unauthorized use of voices or portraits created using generative AI through the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

The subject of regulation is mainly cases where the voice or portrait of a specific person, such as a celebrity, is copied using AI without the person's permission and used for commercial purposes.

In the submission, three types of regulations were presented: selling bromides or products using the image of a celebrity, or voice data using the voice of a voice actor directly as a product; using the voice or portrait of a celebrity for differentiation such as increasing the value of the product; and using the celebrity's voice or likeness without permission in advertising.

In order not to discourage legitimate expression activities, acts such as imitating celebrities or imitating vocal cords are excluded from the scope of regulation.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to create a specific system after a meeting of experts.

Recently, with the spread of generative AI, it has become possible to create voices or portraits identical to celebrities, and the problem of unauthorized use of these in products, advertisements, videos, etc. has emerged.

In September, in relation to a video that imitated an AI-generated voice actor's voice without permission, the Tokyo District Court ruled that "voices are also subject to legal protection under the 'right of publicity' with property value."

In August, Japan's Ministry of Justice advisory body announced guidelines stating that voices of voice actors and actors are subject to legal protection of publicity rights, just like portraits, and that generative AI developers and providers may also be held jointly liable depending on the degree of infringement.