Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Actress Sonakshi Sinha, Orders Takedown Of Obscene AI Content
The Delhi High Court has passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha.
Justice Jyoti Singh restrained several artificial intelligence platforms and online retailers from unauthorisedly using her name, likeness, voice and other personality attributes.
The Court passed the order in the interim injunction plea filed by Sinha in her suit filed against multiple defendants, including US-based AI chatbot platforms and various e-commerce websites.
The Court said that the defendants, including john doe (unknown entities), were unlawfully and illegally exploiting and using various elements of the actress' persona such as her likeness, voice, image etc. for unlawful and unjustified commercial gains, without her consent or authorization.
The judge said that some of the infringers were hosting images of the actress with inappropriate clothing and obscene content using AI tools, which was causing irreparable damage to her reputation.
“Plaintiff has a right to protect her name, likeness and all other attributes of her personality and no third party has a right to use these attributes without her consent/authorization,” the Court said.
It added: “Surely, the Plaintiff is entitled to complain that any content which is set in obscene backdrop or shows her in inappropriate clothing and/or which falsely portrays her as endorsing brands, where there is no authorization and/or which uses attributes and elements of her persona such as her images, voices etc., is liable to be forthwith taken down from the public space.”
Justice Singh said that the infringing content, hosted purely for commercial or personal gains, is continuing to cause harm and damage to Sinha's formidable goodwill and reputation.
The Court restrained the Defendants from using or exploiting Sinha's name, image, voice or likeness, directly or indirectly, for any purpose, including through AI tools such as chatbots, deepfakes or generative AI, without authorisation.
They have also been restrained from selling merchandise or passing off products by falsely suggesting endorsement by the actor.
The Court directed the AI platforms and websites to take down infringing URLs identified in the plaint within 36 hours of receiving the order.
Title: SONAKSHI SINHA v. CHARACTER TECHNOLOGIES INC & ORS