Matthew McConaughey trademarks himself to fight AI misuse

https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/celebrities/matthew-mcconaughey-trademarks-himself-to-fight-ai-misuse/ar-AA1UaVvt

by busymom0 • 6 months ago

33 13 6 months ago

msn.com

balderdash• 6 months ago

It feels like one's likeness should be automatically assumed to be trademarked (or be trademarked by right through legislation)

tracker14• 6 months ago

So nobody raised in a similar culture developing effectively an indistinguishable voice or happens to look the same can be allowed to live/work?

Nevermark2• 6 months ago

That isn't how trademark law works.

The line is if the symbols/works are used in a context so they clearly intentionally, or by unnecessary/unreasonable lack of care, create confusion. Someone who looks and sounds like McConaughey just being themselves isn't a violation.

Look at existing trademarks. They are riddled with high similarity filings, but they co-exist as long as they are not used to create confusion.

The bar for any enforcement would be very high for humans, simply looking and behaving like themselves.

But if someone very much like McConaughey was used in a commercial portraying a fictional "famous actor", that wouldn't go over. Unless ... it was clearly a parody. Or in fact, they are also an actor, and small signals indicate which actor, avoiding reasonable confusion problems. Or any other reasonable mitigations are taken.

McConaughey couldn't even sue a movie about him, with reenactments of real incidents in his life, using an actor naturally/made-up to look nearly indistinguishable, as long as it was clear the actor was not McConaughey. (Using computers to create an exact likeness might be challengeable, depending on the specifics - as they would essentially be lifting his face directly from him. Which gets into the realm of unreasonable, because it wouldn't be a reasonable requirement of any bio to go that far.)

1123581321• 6 months ago

He keeps getting older, but the frontier models stay the same age.

pandama• 6 months ago

I think the parody law would make this moot. Unless he's made to be selling something, I'd imagine him being a public figure would make the trademarks meaningless.

tracker14• 6 months ago

I keep thinking that I want to see a "parody" of "James Bond (007)" called "Chad Bond (00G)" that is effectively classic bond style, but American and not any more campy than the earlier bond films were. Just actually being a classic Bond style, instead of a "for modern audiences" reshaping.

1vuio0pswjnm72• 6 months ago

Text-only:

https://assets.msn.com/content/view/v2/Detail/en-in/AA1UaVvt

ChrisArchitect2• 6 months ago

non-paywall WSJ source from earlier: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/matthew-mcconaughey-trademarks-h...

ChrisArchitect2• 6 months ago

As with most things around AI, the problem is the scale. We are not ready for the amount of cease & desist court cases around individual likeness etc that are going to start flooding and overwhelming the system.

1vuio0pswjnm72• 6 months ago

Meanwhile he has been doing TV ads for "AI" for years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7W__UoPyh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JNLL7U8H8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7W__UoPyh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-35QjvFEmhE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvG41iEXFrU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqmBcqDkyw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI2cBdo0XDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvKDYQJ1QwM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-9IqXij9Xk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OHD4sqCE3w

tracker14• 6 months ago

I'm mixed on this... there are always other actual people that will have matching voices or looks. Are they now effectively illegal for looking/sounding like they do?

IIRC, works have been sued for actors looking/sounding like other voice actors.

Matthew McConaughey trademarks himself to fight AI misuse

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