Who Owns The Face? Deepfakes And The Legal Boundaries Of Identity, Likeness, And Copyright
- IJLLR Journal
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Himani Arya, PhD Scholar, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
ABSTRACT
In the modern era of fabricated media, deepfakes are a whole new problem for laws that protect identity, likeness, and copyright. This paper examines the critical issue: Who owns the face?, by analyzing the degree to which Indian law acknowledges and safeguards an individual's facial identity in the era of AI-generated visual manipulation.
There have been many deepfake occurrences in India lately. One of the most famous ones is the AI-manipulated video of actress Rashmika Mandanna, which caused a lot of anger and political anxiety in 2023. Recently, surveys have shown that more than three fourth of internet users in India have encountered deepfake generated content and most of them believed it to be true at first glance. Thus, it becomes pertinent to have legal and technological protections to deal with this kind of synthetic media that criminalises deepfakes.
The copyright Act in India protects unique artistic works but there are no provisions that grants individuals a right over their image or likeness unless it is qualified as a work under the Act. As the Honourable Supreme Court has recognised right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, which establishes a potential ground for identity basis claims. But practical enforcement is still not clear and is underdeveloped.
This article will evaluate existing Indian legal frameworks, judicial approach and various constitutional doctrines and principles using exploratory legal research methodology to pinpoint deficiencies in the present legal system in safeguarding identity and personality rights. The article would present reforms in law in light of increasing ethical and technological ramifications of deepfakes.
Keywords: Deepfakes, Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Intellectual Property Rights, Synthetic Media, Manipulation of Media, Personality Rights
