The deep synthesis algorithm makes people become the protagonist of the video in seconds
Where is the legal boundary of "AI face change"?
□ Reporter Han Dandong
□ Our newspaper intern Guan Chuyu
As long as you download a certain software, you can easily cast your facial features on the face of the original actor, and enjoy the pleasure of "participating in" movies, TV series, and short videos.
In recent years, "AI face-changing" has become popular on the Internet. Whether it is in the mobile app store, social platform, or short video platform, you can see many apps and small programs that provide "AI face-changing" services. You only need to upload a photo , after deep synthesis algorithm processing, it can become the protagonist of the video in seconds.
However, behind the fun of "AI face changing", there are many legal risks and infringement disputes hidden behind it.
Recently, the Hangzhou Internet Court heard a case in which the "AI face-changing" app used deep synthesis algorithms to infringe on other people's portrait rights, and determined that the app developer constituted an infringement of the plaintiff's portrait rights.
Where is the legal boundary of "AI face changing" technology?
What are the legal risks in developers providing "AI face-changing" services and users making and uploading "AI face-changing" videos?
With these questions in mind, the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter interviewed relevant industry insiders.
There are a lot of similar software
Easily change faces with one click
In this case heard by the Hangzhou Internet Court, the plaintiff, Lou Moumou, is a model of ancient Hanfu and often posts photos and videos of ancient Hanfu on social platforms.
Lou Moumou discovered that the "AI Face Changing" App operated by the defendant company used the ancient style video template shot by him.
Users can upload their personal photos to replace the face in the video template with the face uploaded by the user. Except for the substantial changes in the facial features, the rest of the content is consistent with the original video.
The software generates an ancient style video after face-changing, and users can save and share it to other platforms.
The court held that the defendant company used deep synthesis technology to make a forged video using his portrait without Lou's consent, which should be determined to constitute an infringement of Lou's portrait right according to law.
The court ruled that the defendant apologized to Lou XX and compensated the loss of 5,000 yuan.
According to the definition given in the "Regulations on the Administration of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services", deep synthesis technology refers to the technology of using deep learning, virtual reality and other synthetic algorithms to produce network information such as text, images, audio, video, and virtual scenes.
These include face generation, face replacement, character attribute editing, face manipulation, gesture manipulation, etc. to generate or edit biometric features in images and video content; image generation, image enhancement, image restoration, etc. to generate or edit images and video content Chinese and African biometric technologies, etc.
The reporter's investigation found that there are a large number of "AI face-changing" apps and small programs that use this technology.
In the mobile app store, search for keywords such as "AI face changer", and there are many related apps recommended, such as "AI video face changer show", "one-click face changer", "face changer", "face technology" and so on.
Search for "face change" on a social platform, and you can also see many "AI face change" small programs, such as "AI face change and disguise", "face change AI" and so on.
The reporter downloaded the most popular "AI Video Face Changing Show" app in the mobile app store.
The app has a variety of face-swapping templates to choose from, including AI painting, Hanfu, temperamental beauties, sweet styles, wedding dresses, etc., and a face-swapping video can be generated by uploading photos with one click.
When uploading a photo, the App will also pop up a prompt: "Please ensure that the photos you use are authorized and agreed by the person. It is strictly forbidden to use photos that have not been authorized by the person. If the photo is not authorized to infringe the portrait rights of others, the legal liability shall be borne by I will bear it."
If you want to use the "AI face changing" function on these apps and small programs, some need to pay, such as 19.9 yuan for a single purchase, 38 yuan for a monthly membership, and 168 yuan for a permanent membership; some are free, and ordinary users can enjoy one free per day For the opportunity of "AI face change", after the free times are used up, you can get the permission by browsing the video advertisement.
Lin Lin (pseudonym) is an imitation makeup blogger with nearly 300,000 fans on a short video platform. She often publishes videos imitating the makeup of characters in film and television works.
In February of this year, Lin Lin released a fake makeup video of Ding Minjun in "Yi Tian Tu Long Ji", which received more than 30,000 likes.
But not long after the video was released, she clicked on the topic entry of "Ding Minjun's imitation makeup", and found that there was a video with more than a thousand likes that was actually generated using her original video "AI face change". After checking the blogger's homepage, it was found that all of them were videos generated by "AI face changing".
Lin Lin said that this is not the first time she has encountered videos being stolen by "AI face-changing" apps. Last year, many face-changing apps used her videos as materials, and users need to pay for using these materials.
She communicated with the customer service of these apps at that time, but the other party only took down her videos at that time. After that, similar things still happened frequently, so that some fans questioned whether her videos were also made by "AI face change".
deliberate use of celebrity likeness
Gain traffic by playing side-by-side
During the investigation, the reporter found that celebrity portraits were abused in face-changing apps.
Some "AI face-swapping" apps or applets are promoting face-swapping videos using pictures of celebrities.
If you search for "face changing" on a short video platform, you can see many videos that use celebrity portraits to change faces, and some netizens even use celebrity portraits to change faces and edit some funny videos or hot dance videos to gain attention.
For example, a video titled "Shiro dances "red" live" uses "AI face-changing" to replace the face of the actor in "Zhen Huan" with the face of the Korean actress in the original dance MV.
The video has more than one million views and more than 20,000 likes.
At the same time, the reporter found that in the videos of face-swapping celebrity portraits, many short video bloggers changed the facial features of female celebrities to videos containing indecent content, attracting traffic by playing around the edges.
In August of this year, a fan of a certain actress posted on Fanchao, saying that he saw a blogger on a short video platform posting a video of changing faces with the actress’ portrait, and hoped everyone would report it on the platform.
Following the clues provided by the fan, the reporter found the blogger on a short video platform and found that the blogger was named after the role played by the female star. He had released more than 500 short videos, many of which were It was generated with the "AI face-changing" portrait of the female star, and many of them are edge-of-the-line videos that attract the attention of bloggers, such as sexy singing and dancing.
Currently, the blogger has nearly 800,000 followers.
Due to the unbearable disturbance, some celebrities choose to defend their rights.
In August 2021, Liu Haoran's studio issued a statement stating that someone used the "AI face-changing" technology to spread insulting videos and screenshots of Liu Haoran, as well as chat records containing defamatory remarks.
The studio said it has reported the incident to the police.
In September 2021, due to his personal portrait, a short video blogger used "AI face-changing" technology to make a large number of ghost and animal videos of Lin Junjie. He sued the platform and the blogger, demanding an apology and claiming 275,000 yuan.
However, to this day, there are still a large number of face-swapping videos of celebrity portraits on the homepage of the blogger sued by JJ Lin.
Freedom to use allegedly infringing
Technical services urgently need to be standardized
"'AI face-changing' is a deep synthesis technology, and random use may have the risk of infringement of portrait rights and reputation rights." Zheng Ning, director of the legal department of the School of Cultural Industry Management, Communication University of China, said.
According to the provisions of the Civil Code, no organization or individual may infringe on the portrait rights of others by defaming, defaced, or using information technology to forge.
Without the consent of the portrait right holder, the portrait of the portrait right holder shall not be produced, used, or published, except as otherwise provided by law.
Without the consent of the owner of the portrait right, the owner of the portrait work shall not use or disclose the portrait of the owner of the portrait right by publishing, copying, distributing, renting, exhibiting, etc.
"Regardless of individuals, platforms, and software developers, without the consent of the portrait rights holder, the behavior of extracting portraits through technical means and using them without authorization or uploading them to the face-changing app for users to choose and use is infringing on the portrait rights of others," said Zheng Ning. .
Zheng Ning also mentioned that the Civil Code also stipulates that civil subjects enjoy the right of reputation. "If someone changes the face of another person into an indecent video, or uses face-changing software to maliciously vilify others, it may infringe the right of reputation of others." .
Liu Zhi, a senior partner of Beijing Yingke (Chongqing) Law Firm, said that "AI face changing" may also be deliberately used to engage in some illegal activities.
In a case of falsely issuing value-added tax invoices that he handled, in order to set up a "shell company" to issue invoices, the suspect found someone to use the "AI face-changing" technology to change the faces of relevant personnel's ID cards during the stage of establishing the company.
In Liu Zhi's view, technology has a profound impact on human life and work, but "technology neutrality" cannot be a reason to evade responsibilities and obligations.
The "Regulations on the Administration of Deep Synthesis of Internet Information Services" jointly issued by the State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security set the "bottom line" and "red line" for deep synthesis services, emphasizing that deep synthesis services must not be used to engage in legal, Activities prohibited by administrative regulations require deep synthesis service providers to implement the main responsibility for information security.
The promulgation of this regulation has greatly promoted the regulation of "AI face-changing".
"If a video creator finds that his video has been stolen by the operator of the 'AI face-changing' app, the video owner can file a civil lawsuit to demand that the operator bear civil responsibilities such as stopping the infringement, apologizing and compensating for losses. If you find your own If the video is used by someone to violate the law and commit a crime, you can report the case to the public security organ to investigate the legal responsibility of the relevant person.” Liu Zhi said.
(Rule of Law Daily)