Q: Are there any legal rights for an individual regarding their voice in the context of speech synthesis?
Progress in speech synthesis, in particular the work of google (tacotron 2) and baidu (deep voice 3 and and un-named copying system), raises the question of the rights of an individual to the use of their voice and I have found no sufficient answer. I am curious if the law even has a stance on such things and if not what the most likely course of action shall be.
A: There is a small body of case law on mimicking a famous person's voice (usually a singer's voice in advertisements) surrounding that person's right to publicity that could be used as a basis to claim legal rights in the sound of one's voice with respect to speech synthesis.
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