Capitalism: steal first, apologize with no real repurcussions later
Sadly, it was Grace Hopper who said "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (9 December 1906 – 1 January 1992) was a U.S. Naval officer, and an early computer programmer. She was the developer of the first compiler for a computer programming language; at the end of her service she was the oldest serving officer in the United States Navy.
That brings me to the most important piece of advice that I can give to all of you: if you've got a good idea, and it's a contribution, I want you to go ahead and DO IT. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.
- The future: Hardware, Software, and People in Carver, 1983
Except she probably wasn't referring to identity theft; just how to handle dumb shits in management.
Yeah, there's some key qualifiers in there
if you’ve got a good idea, and it’s a contribution
Identity theft is neither a good idea or a contribution to society
Well, she did tell that she didn't get a budget, so they just effectively stole from other departments. Want a table that's not bolted down? Take it.
But that's Navy internals, (arguably) not a massive for-profit company that's going it out of sheer greed.
Dumb shits in military management. And she was an admiral; near the top of that management.
Oh so I guess piracy is fine if it’s citizens getting robbed huh? Funny how that works.
Sony will pirate from anyone who isn't Sony. Same with Time-Warner. Same with Columbia. Same with every studio, every label, every publishing house.
Absolutely no-one in the industry takes piracy seriously until it's their own stuff being pirated by someone else.
Moreover, they all are used to Hollywood accounting, in which lawyers try to justify not paying someone for work whenever they can.
Hollywood. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany.
A fantastic example is the Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony.
It samples a few seconds of a Rolling Stones song. For this, the former Stones manager Allen Klein sues them. The Verve gives up all royalties for the whole song. So the Stones are getting that money, right? No, Klein had the ownership of the piece in question go to himself.
Klein dies in 2009, and the rights to everything finally revert to the Stones in 2019. They think the whole sampling thing with the Verve is stupid, and relinquish the song's rights back to them.
For about 20 years, it was not only morally OK to pirate that song, but morally obligatory. The execs of the industry don't give a shit about the artists.
I think you misspelled capitalism.
We are going to need much stronger image rights for individuals in the AI age.
There’s no way to stop the technology itself (although current development may plateau at some point), so there must be strong legal restrictions on abusing it.
Yeah, the genie is out of the bottle on this one. I can do voice cloning with consumer hardware and available models. That can't be undone, but good legal protections would be nice.
That said, the Johanson case is a bad example because it really didn't sound much like her at all. It was a chipper yound white lady sound, but to my ear sounded nothing like Johanson. It did sound kinda like a character she voiced, but I would not gave confused the two. They cloned the voice of someone they paid to give a similar inflection as the voice from Her. That's far removed from cloning Johanson herself. It is closer to people making music "in the style of".
Legal plagiarism machine
Ok this ~~is~~ seems like a problem of trademark not copyright, or impersonation and fraud by pretending to be him. It's about his name, not really about his voice. His voice is also pretty generic EDIT: it's only in this specific market segment that it's problematic.
Not sure if the video said it was from him or not. It's been taken down, so I can't check, but I don't think it ever made that claim. Someone just noticed it sounded the same as Jeff.
It's copyright because they had to have fed the model with voice data from Jeff's videos.
Well in this case they used his likeness and brand to appear more legitimate and make money. So I'd argue this is trademark (even if not registered) so a legitimate complaint.
I don't believe in "copyright" for a voice. See for example impersonators. But in this case it's a deliberate deception which is pretty simple.
I don't believe in intellectual property at all and think it is a form of theft, to deprive others from common knowledge or information just to seek rent. In case of patents I equate it even to aiding in genocide, since most advances in more energy efficiency use are patented and exploited for profit and slowing down adaptation. Without exhaustive attempts to try other systems to pay creators, copyright law is a moral abomination. That is a philosophical or ethical argument, not a legal one.
I think this is pretty blatant. Sadly, I don't think there is anything we'll be able to do about this. The onus is on you and the prosecution to prove that they did.
I thought the fallout from that would lead to companies being careful about the AI voices they use for things like product demos and tutorials...
Oh, honey...
I cannot wait until all actors and writers get replaced so every thing is just bland cookie cutting trite that is mid tier at best. Producers will make do much money and audience won't have a choice but to watch it
So much money
audience won't have a choice but to watch it
This is only true if humans stop making art. Maybe Hollywood dies at the hands of AI, but independent media will always exist & consumers will always have a choice.
But what about live performers? Why would someone go to see a local band when they can see a hologram of the 'beetles' for much cheaper?
I'm not sure how you can get much cheaper than a local band lol.
I can go see a DIY show with a local no-name act for less than $12. There are even shows (often I see this for theatrical shows) that are pay-what-you-can (including $0). I don't see a world where these are going away, even in the face of AI.
Besides, I don't think the consumer is comparing a local band with the 'beetles'. The Beatles are quite literally one of the most influential acts of all time – it's a false equivalency.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
