this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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His voice wasn't stolen, it's still right where he left it.
Fair enough. It's not theft, it's something else.
But that's just semantics, though.
The point is that his voice is being used without his permission, and that companies, profiteering people, and scammers will do so using his voice and the voices others. He likely wants some kind of law against this kind of stuff.
If you made a painting for me, and then I started making copies of it without your permission and selling them off, while I might not have stolen the physical painting, I have stolen your art.
Just because they didn't rip his larynx out of his throat, doesn't mean you can't steal someone's voice.
We're getting into samantics but it's counterfeit not stolen.
It would be more like if you made a painting for me, and I then used that to replicate your artistic style and used that to make new paintings without your permission and passed it off as your work.
Jfc the pedantry.
I think it was a joke
No, the use of words matter when having a debate. "Theft" is an emotionally charged word that has a lot of implications that don't actually map well to what's going on here. It's not a good word to be using for this.
FaceDeer stop being an inhuman techbro about ai for 5 minutes challenge
What word or phrase would you have used in the headline ?
"Copied" or "mimicked" would be more accurate.
Hornswaggled?
I’ll go for ‘captured’ which is both figuratively and literally accurate
Copyright infringement, which, in this context, is still a seriously concerning crime.
It's not copyright infringement. You can't copyright a style, which is basically what a voice amounts to.
This is something new. It's a way of taking something that we always thought of as belonging to a person, and using it without their permission.
At the moment the closest thing is trademark infringement, assuming you could trademark your personal identity (which you can't). The harms are basically the same, deliberately passing off something cheap or dodgy as if it was associated with a particular entity. Doesn't matter if the entity is Stephen fry or Pepsi Max.
It is, as a matter of fact. When Fry recorded his voice for those audiobooks, they were copyrighted. Reproducing the contents of those works as they have is, arguably a violation of copyright.
And when you compare Steven Frye to Pepsi Max, that’s a false equivalence, because you’re comparing a copyrighted material to a trademarked brand which are two different things.
Still, to your point of theft, nobody is taking anything from anyone. They are using something without permission, and that still falls squarely as copyright infringement, not theft.
This did not occur.
That's not reproduction of content so isn't a copyright violation. Not shouldn't be. Literally right now is not.
The whole reason people are so up in arms about this is that we do not currently have laws or even standards that accurately police this kind of thing.
I am describing the current situation. You are the one describing events you hope to occur.
No I'm looking at this the way a lawyer does.
You know, like for court.
That you think I am defending the people using Fry's voice here is just further confirmation that you don't understand what I'm saying.
I'm saying there aren't laws or standards that accurately restrict this usage, and that is a bad thing and why people are upset.