Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie's remake.
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Amazon accused of using AI to 'replicate the voices' of actors in Road House remake
It did so during the actor's strike to finish the project before its copyright expired, the lawsuit alleges.
Steve Dent
Reporter
Wed, Feb 28, 2024, 12:44 AM EST·2 min read
Amazon Studios
Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film
Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie's remake,
The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of using AI to clone actors' voices in the new production in order to finish it before the copyright expired.
Hill said he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights to his original screenplay, which forms the basis of the new film. At that point, the rights were owned by Amazon Studios, as
part of its acquisition of MGM, but were set to expire in November 2023. Hill alleges that once that happened, the rights would revert back to him.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios rushed ahead with the project anyway in order to finish it before the copyright deadline. Since it was stymied by the actor's strike, Hill alleges Amazon used AI to “replicate the voices” of the actors who worked in the 2024 remake. Such use violated the terms of the deal struck between the union and major studios including Amazon.
The claim is complicated by the fact that Hill signed a "work-made-for-hire" deal with the original producer, United Artists. That effectively means that the studio hiring the writer would be both the owner and copyright holder of the work. Hill, however, dismissed that as "boilerplate" typically used in contracts.
The lawsuit seeks to block the release of the film, set to bow at SXSW on March 8th before (
controversially) heading direct to streaming on Prime Video on March 21.
Amazon denies the claims, with a spokesperson telling
The Verge that "the studio expressly instructed the filmmakers to NOT use AI in this movie." It added that if AI was utilized, it was only done in early versions of the films. Later on, filmmakers were told to remove any "AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors" for the final version. It added that other allegations are "categorically false" and that it believes its copyright on the original
Road House has yet to expire.
Microsoft has
filed a motion seeking to dismiss key parts of a lawsuit
The New York Times filed against the company and Open AI, accusing them of copyright infringement. If you'll recall,
The Timessued both companies for using its published articles to train their GPT large language models (LLMs) without permission and compensation. In its filing, the company has
accusedThe Times of pushing "doomsday futurology" by claiming that AI technologies pose a threat to independent journalism. It follows OpenAI's court filing from late February that's also seeking to dismiss some important elements on the case.
Like
OpenAI before it, Microsoft accused
The Times of crafting "unrealistic prompts" in an effort to "coax the GPT-based tools" to spit out responses matching its content. It also compared the media organization's lawsuit to Hollywood studios' efforts to " stop a groundbreaking new technology:" The VCR. Instead of destroying Hollywood, Microsoft explained, the VCR helped the entertainment industry flourish by opening up revenue streams. LLMs are a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, it continued, and Microsoft collaborated with OpenAI to "help bring their extraordinary power to the public" because it "firmly believes in LLMs' capacity to improve the way people live and work."
The company is asking the court to dismiss three claims, including one saying it's liable for end-user copyright infringement through the use of GPT-based tools and another that says it violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Microsoft also wants the court to dismiss the element of the case wherein
The Times accused it of misappropriating time-sensitive breaking news and consumer purchasing recommendations. As an example,
The Times argued in its lawsuit that it will lose revenue if users ask ChatGPT to research articles on Wirecutter, which the news company owns, because potential buyers will no longer click on its referral links. But that's "mere speculation about what
The Times apparently fears might happen," and it didn't give a single real-world example in its complaint, Microsoft said.
"Microsoft doesn't dispute that it worked with OpenAI to copy millions of
The Times's works without its permission to build its tools," Ian Crosby, lead counsel for
The Times, told the publication." Instead, it oddly compares L.L.M.s to the VCR even though VCR makers never argued that it was necessary to engage in massive copyright infringement to build their products."
OpenAI and Microsoft are facing more lawsuits related to the content used to train the former's LLMs other than this particular one.
Nonfiction writers and fiction authors, including Michael Chabon, George R.R. Martin, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, accused the companies of stealing their work for AI training. More recently,
The Intercept, Raw Story and
AlterNetfiled separate lawsuits against the company, because ChatGPT allegedly reproduces their content "verbatim or nearly verbatim" while removing proper attribution.