Oct 12, 2023 12:30:00

Recording Industry Association of America requests recognition of AI voice cloning service as a copyright infringement site

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) considers

Voicify AI , a service that can create an AI voice model that reproduces human singing voices by learning them as data, to be a potential threat of copyright infringement, and the US government has proposed adding it to the 'List of Potential Piracy Markets.'

Comment from Recording Industry Association of America
https://www.regulations.gov/comment/USTR-2023-0009-0019

RIAA wants AI voice cloning sites on government piracy watchlist - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/11/23913405/riaa-ai-voice-cloning-threat-copyright-ustr

Voicify AI allows you to prepare and upload an acapella sound source that sings without accompaniment and have the model learn it. Furthermore, if you upload a sound source that you want to sing, it will automatically separate the singing voice and accompaniment, and then create a sound source that uses the learned model to sing. Furthermore, by entering the YouTube address, there is also a function that will prepare the sound source of the song of the video.

For example, in the movie below, you can hear the sound source of British singer Adele's 'Skyfall' sung by Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury using AI.

Skyfall - Freddie Mercury (AI Cover) - YouTube


Below is a cover of Marc Martel 's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' dubbed into Michael Jackson's singing voice using AI.

[AI] Michael Jackson - Bohemian Rhapsody (Cover) WIP - YouTube


In a filing with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the RIAA calls Voicify AI, which reproduces celebrity singing voices from audio files, an 'AI voice cloning service' and is accused of promoting copyright infringement and counterfeiting. We asked them to add Voicify AI to the list of organizations that support them. This list is known to include AliExpress, WeChat, The Pirate Bay, and more.

The RIAA said, ``Users are downloading videos from YouTube and other sources, copying vocal-only tracks, and then modifying them using an AI voice model.This series of actions carried out without permission infringes copyright. Not only that, but it also violates the artist's right of publicity .'

In addition, the RIAA said, ``By 2023, there will be a rapid increase in the number of unlicensed AI voice cloning services, and the rights of not only the artists whose voices have been cloned, but also the rights of the artists who own the sound source of each song that is the basis for it.'' It is also infringing.'

A list of potential piracy markets is expected to be published by the USTR in early 2024. However, at the time of writing the article, the debate on whether AI violates publicity rights has not progressed, and the scope of protection of portrait rights varies by state, so the IT news site The Verge said, ``In the 2023 list review It may not even be possible to add a category called ``AI voice cloning site''.''