Actor and entrepreneur Vivek Oberoi on Thursday moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection against the misuse of his name, image and other attributes of his persona, especially in the case of morphed or AI-generated content. Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the court will pass the order.
‘Videos vulgar and sexually explicit in nature’
In his lawsuit, the actor claimed that several entities were exploiting his personality rights without authorisation, causing ‘incalculable loss’ to his goodwill and reputation. The lawsuit claimed that the accused entities were impersonating him on social media by creating fake accounts in his name and using morphed images and AI-created visuals. Vivek alleged that the said content had “distasteful imagery”.
The lawsuit stated, “These videos often portray the plaintiff in a false setting as well as in an inappropriate scenario with other celebrities of the film industry. Such scenarios often seek to convey obvious distasteful insinuations that target the plaintiff’s family life as well. Such distasteful videos are bound to mislead the public into thinking that what is depicted in that video is, in fact, true. These videos are vulgar and sexually explicit in nature. What is particularly egregious is the fact that the defendants are exploiting the plaintiff’s image and creating such YouTube shorts/videos to gain traction for their videos.”
Vivek’s lawsuit also touched upon how e-commerce websites are selling merchandise like posters, T-shirts and postcards bearing his name, making commercial gains without his consent or authorisation.
‘Has acquired successful goodwill as a businessman’
The lawsuit added that Vivek is a successful entrepreneur, apart from being an actor, with business interests in India and Dubai, adding that the deepfake content is harming his goodwill there as well
“He has built independent commercial credibility beyond the film industry and has acquired substantial goodwill as a businessman”, stated the lawsuit, arguing that nobody should misappropriate or imitate any facet of his personality without his consent. The lawsuit asked for restraining the offending entities from violating his personality rights.
Vivek’s case is the latest in a series of cases in which public figures are moving court against the misuse of their personality rights. Before him, actors Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Salman Khan, and podcaster Raj Shamani have approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights.
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