<
https://theconversation.com/from-taylor-swift-to-bollywood-stars-turn-to-the-civil-courts-to-fight-deepfakes-281745>
"Music superstar Taylor Swift has applied to trademark her voice and image to
head off the threat of AI-generated impersonations. But the problem extends
much further than pop royalty.
Anyone can be manipulated by the powerful technology: AI-created videos of you
endorsing a politician you despise, images on social media of you in a
skin-tight Spiderwoman outfit you never wore, a simulation of your voice
allowing users to indulge their sexual fantasies … all possible.
The rapid development of deepfakes is amplifying calls for better legal
protections for individuals’ images and likenesses. The notorious rollout of
new picture-editing capabilities by X’s Grok chatbot in late 2025 only added to
their urgency.
And the law has begun to respond. Australia now criminalises creating and
sharing sexually explicit material online, including digitally created
material.
In the US, the 2025
Take it Down Act prohibits non-consensual publication of
intimate depictions of individuals, including “digital forgeries”.
In New Zealand, proposed amendments to the
Crimes Act and the
Harmful
Digital Communications Act will improve criminal law responses to sexual
deepfakes.
But another legal front is opening up, too: victims are turning to tort law.
Part of the civil (rather than criminal) law, tort claims do not require the
state to act. People can seek damages and injunctions to shut down or block
access to the harmful and humiliating material."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
