Appearing in an advertisement without having participated in the filming is possible thanks to deepfake technology. Problem, personalities have not always given their consent to the use of their image. In the United States, where the practice is spreading, the jurisprudence still does not take these cases into account and must be adapted, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The latest is Elon Musk, seen in a satirical ad published last week by real estate investment startup reAlpha Tech Corp. In September, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in a promotional video for machine learning company Paperspace. Last year, Russian telecommunications company MegaFon ran an ad featuring a deepfake of Bruce Willis.
But without the consent of the constituents concerned, there is a legal gray area. This technology is a great advantage for brands, as it allows them to reduce production costs and avoid paying celebrities fabulous sums. It’s hard for celebrities to contain the use of their image in deepfakes as such content proliferates and technology becomes more available.
There is no specific law for advertising
But US lawmakers have begun to address this phenomenon. In 2019, Virginia banned the use of deepfakes in revenge porn cases, Texas banned them in political campaigns, and California banned them in both cases. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security took it upon itself to produce annual reports on the threats posed by this technology.
However, there is currently no specific law in the case of advertisements. The only short-term solution for actors, athletes, and other celebrities: Insert clauses prohibiting any further use of their likeness in all commercial contracts they sign.
And inevitably, everything is never very clear, as evidenced by the case of Bruce Willis where the actor’s lawyers deny that the latter has sold his image to the Deepcake company, in charge of making his digital clone. In 2020, however, Deepcake was hired by the Russian telecommunications company MegaFon to develop the advertising campaign.
the french case
In France, advertising deepfakes are not yet in fashion, but in 2019, the Solidarité Sida association used one to launch a campaign: Trump announces the end of AIDS. When the video was published, the method caused a lot of reaction.
Specifically, a victim of deepfake can rely on existing legislation, said lawyer Thierry Valat, a specialist in digital law, who died this year, on his blog. This is not specific to the case of ads. Article 226-8 of the Penal Code provides that: “The fact of publishing, by any means, the edition made with the word or image of a person without their consent is punishable by one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. , if it is not obvious that it is a montage or if it is not expressly mentioned.
Specifically, a victim of deepfake can rely on existing legislation, said lawyer Thierry Valat, a specialist in digital law, who died this year, on his blog. This is not specific to the case of ads. Article 226-8 of the Penal Code provides that: “The fact of publishing, by any means, the edition made with the word or image of a person without their consent is punishable by one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. , if it is not obvious that it is a montage or if it is not expressly mentioned.
Source: BFM TV
