Delhi HC on Safeguarding Personality and Publicity Rights

Context

Recently, the Delhi High Court has issued a ruling safeguarding the personality and publicity rights of the founder of Isha Foundation.

About the Personality and Publicity Rights

• Personality rights consult with an individual’s capability to control the industrial use in their identity. These rights are frequently divided into two categories:
• Right to Privacy: Recognised under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
  • Reinforced in the landmark Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) judgment, which extended personal to the status of a fundamental right.
• Right to Publicity: Prevents unauthorized commercial use of a person’s identification.
  • Elements of Personality Rights are name, image, likeness, voice, and signature etc.

Concerns in Personality Rights

• Lack of Comprehensive Legal Framework: India does not have a committed regulation governing personality rights, depending alternatively on copyright, trademark, and privacy legal guidelines.
  • The absence of clean statutory protections makes enforcement difficult.
• AI-Generated Deepfakes & Digital Manipulation: The upward thrust of AI has caused the advent of deepfake motion pictures and voice clones, allowing unauthorized use of someone’s identity.
• Commercial Exploitation Without Consent: Celebrities and influencers often discover their likeness used in classified ads without permission.
  • The right to publicity is meant to prevent such misuse, but enforcement is inconsistent.

Challenges in Enforcement

• Jurisdictional Issues: Online violations regularly involve global platforms, making legal action complex.
• Balancing Free Speech & Protection: Courts ought to weigh freedom of expression against individual rights, specially in satire and parody cases.
• Rogue Websites & Social Media Violations: Websites that misuse personal rights can reappear under specific names, making enforcement difficult.

Legal & Constitutional Provisions

• Copyright Act, 1957: It grants performers rights over their work, ensuring that their photo and voice aren’t used without permission.
• Trade Marks Act, 1999: It lets individuals to trademark their name or likeness, preventing unauthorized business use.
• Tort of Passing Off: It prevents misleading industrial use of a person’s identity, ensuring that their recognition isn’t exploited.
• Advisories, tips, and IT rules: Though India lacks specific rules for Artificial Intelligence (AI) , IT policies govern the advancement of AI, Generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs).

Judicial Precedents

• Jackie Shroff Case (2024): Delhi HC limited unauthorised use of his personal through AI chatbots and e-trade platforms.
• Krishna Kishore Singh v. Sarla A. Saraogi (2021): SC held that publicity rights are distinct from personal rights and can outlive the individual.
• Arun Jaitley v. Network Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (2011): Delhi HC stated the economic importance of 1’s name, in particular in the digital space.

Global Perspective

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) acknowledges personal rights as an important part of intellectual property law.
• Many countries, including America and European countries, have specific statutes governing publicity rights, ensuring people can control how their identification is used commercially.
• Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act of 2024 (ELVIS Act) was passed in the State of Tennessee, USA to protect musicians from unauthorised use in their voice, i.e. ‘soundalikes’.

Source: The Hindu

Mains PYQ

Q. In a globalized world, Intellectual Property Rights assume significance and are a source of litigation. Broadly distinguish between the terms—Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets. (2014)

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