Chinese service from text to speech based onAI Pay 750,000 yuan (approximately US$112,000) to miHoYo for unauthorized use of relevant information Genshin Impact. The judgment was handed down by the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court in a case involving a service that allowed users to change their voices in real time using the packages offered.
No permission
According to miHoYo, the service reproduces 63 Genshin Impact Charactersand then put the relevant voice packs on sale. The company also objected to the use of character images and animations in promotional videos for the service, as well as the use of modified images as packaging avatars and features that let users preview certain characters’ lines.
The Chinese company had requested Compensation of 5 million yuan, equivalent to approximately US$746,000and immediately imposed an injunction to stop the controversial activities, accusing the service of constituting copyright infringement and unfair competition.
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Instead, the service manager claims that the sounds are generated through artificial intelligence models trained at scale, and that the results change based on input provided by users. The company also claims that any rights to the sound signature belong to Actor who voices the character Therefore, any claim must be made by the latter.
However, voiceprint analysis revealed that the voice produced by the service has “almost the same characteristics” as the voice of the Genshin Impact character. Additionally, during the course of the lawsuit, the manager admitted to using approximately one minute of audio from the Genshin Impact character, as well as other material, to Train your model.
The court ruled that the character design and game sequences of “Genshin Impact” belong to Copyrighted artistic and audiovisual works. Therefore, unauthorized use is considered copyright infringement.
The court held that the use of sound by AI services has gone beyond simple imitation, and also constituted the following cases: unfair competitionas this may lead consumers to believe that the service is connected to or officially approved by miHoYo.
The court ultimately ordered the company Stop illegal activities immediately And pay 750,000 yuan in compensation to miHoYo. The first-instance verdict was issued on June 30, but became final recently after the service manager withdrew his appeal.