The complaints keep coming against allegedly AI generated works. This brings the total number of copyright-related lawsuits against AI companies to 17, 2 of which have been consolidated.
This one involves the estate of George Carlin, the late comedian, brought against a group–Dudesy LLC, Will Sasso, Chad Kultgen–who created a video impersonating Carlin in a comedy routine titled “I’m glad I’m dead.” The video was posted on YouTube, but apparently has been made private. The video had an opening disclaimer that it was not made by George Carlin.
According to the New York Times, “Danielle Del, a spokeswoman for Sasso, said Dudesy [the comedian in the video] is not actually an A.I.” If true, and the comedy routine was created by human authors, then the assertion that an AI was trained on copies of Carlin’s comedy routines seems to be undermined. But it also appears the video may have used some AI generated images, including one of a figure who looks like Carlin; it’s unclear whether any copyrighted images of the estate were used.
Filed by lawyers from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the Complaint asserts the following claims:
- VIOLATION OF RIGHTS OF PUBLICITY—CAL. COMMON LAW (against All Defendants):
“Defendants have knowingly and intentionally used and continue to knowingly and intentionally use Carlin’s name, image and likeness for the purposes of advertising, selling and soliciting traffic to Dudesy, LLC’s podcast, website, YouTube channel, and social media accounts. Most decisions and policy relating to this conduct have occurred in and emanated from California, including because Defendants Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen live in California.” - DEPRIVATION OF RIGHTS OF PUBLICITY—CAL. CIV. CODE § 3344.1 (against All Defendants): “Defendants have knowingly and intentionally used and continue to knowingly and intentionally use Carlin’s name image and likeness for the purposes ofadvertising, selling and soliciting traffic to Dudesy, LLC’s podcast, website, YouTube channel, and social media accounts. Most decisions and policy relating to this conduct have occurred in and emanated from California.”
- COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (17 U.S.C. § 501) (against All Defendants): “Without authorization from Plaintiffs, or any right under law, Defendants have unlawfully used Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works for building and training a dataset for purposes of generating an output intended to mimic Plaintiffs’ copyrighted work (i.e., Carlin’s stand-up comedy). Such actions infringe Plaintiffs’ exclusive rights in the copyrighted works.”