A US federal judge has dismissed parts of a claim by two voice-over actors against an AI start-up over allegedly using their voices without permission, but allowed a revised complaint to go ahead.
US District Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed claims by by actors Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage that their voices were subject to federal copyright and trademark protections, but declined to dismiss the case entirely, as start-up Lovo had requested.
Oetken permitted the actors to go ahead with revised copyright claims in what their attorney Steve Cohen called a “spectacular victory”.
Commercial rights
Cohen said he was “confident that a jury will come to the same conclusions as Judge Oetken and hold big tech accountable”.
The case will go ahead in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on claims that Lovo violated their copyright by using their voices for AI training and that it violated their commercial rights under New York law.
Lehrman and Sage, a couple living in New York City, said in the proposed class-action lawsuit filed last year that they were approached separately via freelance marketplace Fiverr to provide voiceover work for anonymous clients.
Lehrman was allegedly told his voice would be used only for a “research project” while Sage was told her voice would be used only for “test scripts for radio ads”.
They were told their voices would “not be disclosed externally and will only be consumed internally”.
The actors later found Lovo was offering AI-generated versions of their voices for sale as “Kyle Snow” and “Sally Coleman”.
Copyright claims
They said the voices were being used for a fundraising video for the platform and an advertisement on the firm’s YouTube page.
Eventually Lovo removed the voices, claiming they were “not popular”.
Lovo had moved for the case to be dismissed, saying the plaintiffs had failed to state an “actionable claim”.
The case is one of many that have been filed against AI companies over the use of material ranging from novels to song lyrics and news copy to train robots that make profits through the reuse of the material.