In a big win for the veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle, the Bombay High Court on Thursday issued an order protecting the unauthorised use of her personality rights. The court restrained various entities
from misusing the personal attributes of the singer, like her name and images – even with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The court stated that making AI tools available to replicate a celebrity’s voice without consent is a violation of their identity rights.
“Making AI tools available to enable the conversion of any voice into that of a celebrity without his/ her permission would constitute a violation of the celebrity’s personality rights. Such tools facilitate the unauthorised appropriation and manipulation of a celebrity’s voice, which is a key component of their personal identity and public persona,” Justice Arif S Doctor stated.
Asha Bhosle had approached the court against several defendants, including Mayk Inc, an AI company allegedly offering cloned versions of her voice.
What Are Personality Rights?
Personality rights refer to an individual’s legal entitlement to control the commercial and public use of their identity. They safeguard attributes that are uniquely linked to a person, such as their name, image, likeness, voice, signature, or even trademark catchphrases, from being exploited without consent.
These rights are often broken into two branches – the Right of publicity and the Right to privacy. The former protects against unauthorised commercial exploitation, such as using a celebrity’s face in advertisements. On the other hand, the right to privacy guards against intrusion into personal dignity, covering misuse through deepfakes, morphed images, fabricated endorsements, or intimate doctored content.
Previously, the Delhi High Court also protected the personality rights of Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan and filmmaker Karan Johar.
“Personality Rights of individuals, simply put, entail the right to control and protect the exploitation of one’s image, name, likeness or other attributes of the individuals’ personality, in addition to the commercial gains that can be derived from the same. Personality Rights can be located in the individuals’ autonomy to permit or deny the exploitation of the likeness of other attributes of their personality,” the court had said while protecting Aishwarya’s rights.
