[philwelch]

No, if anything that’s a pretty fake controversy too.

Ricardo Montalban had a great quote about the life stages of an actor, enumerating them as follows:

1. Who is Ricardo Montalban?

2. Get me Ricardo Montalban.

3. Get me a Ricardo Montalban type.

4. Get me a young Ricardo Montalban.

5. Who is Ricardo Montalban?

As far as I can tell, Johansson’s complaint is that when OpenAI reached out to her for voice acting and she turned them down, that they instead got a Scarlett Johansson type, and that OpenAI should be categorically prohibited from hiring any voice actor who sounds like her at all. Which is not how acting has ever worked, but for some reason the topic of artificial intelligence gets a lot of people worked up to the point of artificial stupidity.

[pseudalopex]

Midler v. Ford is more relevant legally than Ricardo Montalban's wit. In short deliberate mimicry is not allowed.

OpenAI's public claims about how they produced the Sky voice followed Johansson's public statement. They could be true or false. We don't know what claims or evidence they gave Johansson's counsel.

[qarl]

> As far as I can tell, Johansson’s complaint is that when OpenAI reached out to her for voice acting and she turned them down, that they instead got a Scarlett Johansson type

Agreed, and according to Midler v. Ford that is not permitted:

"We hold only that when a distinctive voice of a professional singer is widely known and is deliberately imitated in order to sell a product, the sellers have appropriated what is not theirs and have committed a tort in California."

[philwelch]

I’ve never seen that standard applied to acting. Particularly voice acting. Midler v. Ford was a dispute between a singer and a company that used a sound-alike singer, singing a cover of a Bette Midler song in a commercial, to falsely imply a sponsorship that didn’t exist. Totally different case.

[qarl]

You've never seen it, huh? Google is super easy to use.

Here, have a look:

https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights

https://higgslaw.com/celebrities-sue-over-unauthorized-use-o...

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-right-publicity....

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law...

[philwelch]

There’s a difference between impersonating someone with the explicit intention of falsely giving the impression they are involved in a project which they are not, and simply hiring an actor (or a voice actor) who can give a performance that’s similar or reminiscent of another.

> You've never seen it, huh? Google is super easy to use.

Please stop acting like an asshole.

[qarl]

I'm sorry, friend, from my perspective it seems quite obvious you're not arguing in good faith, and I have no interest in chasing your goalposts.

You take care now.

[philwelch]

> from my perspective it seems quite obvious you're not arguing in good faith

I’m arguing in good faith, in the sense that I’m expressing my own genuine rationale for my own opinions. Your inability to cope with that and remain civil is the only show of bad faith in this entire discussion.