Reface, an app that uses AI to create hyper-realistic face swaps and allows users to generate deepfake videos with ease, is being sued by Kyland Young, a finalist on the show Big Brother. The app, which boasts over 250 million users worldwide, has been hit with a proposed class action complaint for allegedly commercially exploiting celebrities’ images and likenesses without their consent.
Young alleges that the app violated California’s right of publicity law, as it features photographs and videos of famous individuals that users can swap out with their own faces. The law states that anyone who uses another person’s name, likeness, or photograph without prior consent for advertising or selling purposes shall be held liable for any damages incurred.
This lawsuit is among the first to address the issue of AI-generated imagery, which raises a complex set of intellectual property rights concerns. Generative AI technologies can produce a vast number of potentially infringing images and videos, but these creations are not identical to the original works.
Earlier in the year, artists sued AI image generators Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, accusing them of remixing copyrighted works. Getty Images also sued Stable Diffusion, seeking up to $1.8 trillion in damages for allegedly stealing over 12 million of its copyrighted photos. As of now, there is no federal legislation in the U.S. that protects individuals’ images from being used without consent in deepfake technology.
https://petapixel.com/2023/06/06/ai-face-swap-app-reface-is-sued-for-exploiting-photos-of-celebrities/
