The Japanese voice actor and actor Kenjiro Tsuda secured a partial victory against TikTok in Tokyo’s court, which ruled this Wednesday (the 30th) that the human voice has legal protection in Japan and cannot be used without authorization.
A court determined that the unauthorized use of a performer’s voice could be considered a violation of image rights after Tsuda sued TikTok over several videos that allegedly used a clone of his voice through artificial intelligence (AI).
The actor is known for lending his voice to characters in franchises such as “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. Despite the court recognizing copyright infringement, it did not grant the request to remove the videos.
This case is one of the first in Japan to seek legal protection for the vocal identity of a person generated by AI.
It is worth noting that the artistic community is increasingly calling for legal certainty against the use of artificial intelligence to reproduce voice copies.
