Kumar Sanu Files Delhi High Court Petition to Protect Personality Rights Against AI Voice Cloning and Unauthorized Use

The personality right protects an individual's ability to control, profit from, and safeguard their image, name, or likeness from unauthorized use.

New Delhi:

Kumar Sanu, the renowned singer, has filed a petition with the Delhi High Court requesting protection for his personality and publicity rights, encompassing his name, voice, vocal style, technique, and other distinctive attributes.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora is expected to hear the case on Monday.

In his petition, Sanu has requested comprehensive protection for his personality and publicity rights, including his name, distinctive voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, singing mannerisms, images, caricatures, photographs, likeness, and signature.

He seeks protection against unauthorized or unlicensed usage and commercial exploitation by third parties that could potentially create confusion, deception, or dilution among the public regarding his identity.

The lawsuit, submitted through advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, additionally alleges violations of Sanu's moral rights in his performances as established under the provisions of the Copyright Act.

The petition claims that defendants are infringing upon Sanu's personality and publicity rights by exploiting his name, voice, likeness, and persona without authorization.

Recently, several other prominent figures including Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, filmmaker Karan Johar, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, "Art of Living" founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and journalist Sudhir Chaudhary have approached the high court with similar requests for protection of their personality and publicity rights, with the court granting them interim relief.

Publicity rights, commonly known as personality rights, represent an individual's right to protect, control, and monetize their image, name, or likeness.

Sanu has expressed distress over various GIFs, audio, and video recordings featuring his performances and voice that bring disrepute to him and make him the subject of "unsavoury humour," thereby violating his moral rights in his performances.

He is also concerned about content created using artificial intelligence (AI) to clone his voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements, singing manner, and morphing of his face, including merchandise production.

"Such merchandise and audio/video content of the complainant generate revenue for the defendants, as they are uploaded and streamed on social networking websites, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which generate revenue based on the number of clicks or views to a particular image/video," the suit states.

"Such acts also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off and hence, must be restrained by an order of injunction by this court," the petition concludes.