zlacker

How unique is a voice? I'm sure there's enough people out ther who sounds like Johansson. There's probably some argument for voice + personality + face + mannerisms, some gestalt that's more comparable to copying the likeness "person". But openAI is copying a fictional character played by Johansson, it's not her. Do actor/esses get to monopolize their depiction of fictional characters? Especially when it's not tied to physical represenation. What if OpenAI associate it with an avatar that looks nothing like her. I'm sure hollywood and/or actors union is figuring this out.

>>maxglu+(OP)
> “Do actor/esses get to monopolize their depiction of fictional characters? Especially when it's not tied to physical represenation.”

If Annapurna Pictures (the production company that owns the rights to “Her”) made a sequel where the voice AI is played by someone else than Johansson but sounded the same and was marketed as a direct continuation, I think there would be a lawsuit.

She didn’t write the script or develop the character, but I think there’s enough creative authorship in her voice portrayal that it would be risky for the production company.

>>maxglu+(OP)
"How unique is X" is something we can start to get quantitative answers to with strong machine learning models, and for most things people care about, it seems like the answer is "not very unique at all".

>>pavlov+D1
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/bac...

>>pavlov+D1
But OpenAI isn't making a sequel to Her, which I feel like there would be prexisting legal text in contract about repraising role in event of franchise if johansson has leverage, or ability to cast close facsimile if studio has leverage. Right now Johansson has leverage in court of public opinion, not necessarily law. What if OpenAI used a cartoon cat avatar that sounded like "Her", what if they have one interaction that doesn't comport to "Her" personality from the movie, thereby indicating a different being. Is there some comprehensive method acting documentation outlining the full complexity of a fictional character. Seems like there aremany ways for openAI to make voice sound like her, but not embody "Her" but they'd rather strategically retreat out of optics. But IANAL, but I am interested in seeing how this will get resolved in court.

>>vinter+72
I think it's a very similar question to "how unique is your cooking". Most people aren't unique cooks.

>>maxglu+36
They aren't making a sequel, they are doing an unlicensed video game conversion.

Reading all these musings here about a possible "there is no bad publicity" approach, I'm starting to wonder if the plan for if Johansson signed up was achieving court drama publicity by getting sued by Annapurna Pictures. "Can a three-letter tweet be the base of a copyright case?"

>>pavlov+D1
It's entirely routine for actors and actresses to be replaced in follow up works. The industry is full of examples, but here's 1 off the top of my head:

In iron man 1, Rhodey is played by terrance howard. For iron man 2, he wanted too much money in the contract, so they replaced with with don cheadle.

Wouldn't it be a dumb world to live in if a single actor in the cast can halt the production of a new work via lawsuit because they own the character?