The problem that copyright doesn’t fix is not the actual copying of Swift’s work, but deepfakes that copy her voice and likeness in generated content:
— Historically, singers relied on copyright law to protect their recorded music, writes trademark lawyer Josh Gerben. — But AI technologies now allow users to generate entirely new content that mimics an artist’s voice without copying an existing recording, creating a gap that trademarks may help fill.
Trademarking an artist’s voice and image has only been done once before, by Matthew McConaughey, in an effort to ensure that any «use of his likeness would require approval» in an AI world, Gerben writes.
It’s a novel approach that has yet to be tested by courts, but should provide protection for similar copies of Swift’s works — even those that are «confusingly similar.»
Read more: Josh Gerben’s blog post, Variety, and Reuters.