Amazon is being sued by the author of the unique 1989 Patrick Swayze model of the movie Highway Home over alleged copyright infringement within the film’s remake, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of utilizing AI to clone actors’ voices within the new manufacturing so as to end it earlier than the copyright expired.
Hill stated he filed a petition with the US Copyright Workplace in November 2021 to reclaim the rights to his unique screenplay, which kinds the premise of the brand new movie. At that time, the rights have been owned by Amazon Studios, as part of its acquisition of MGM, however have been set to run out in November 2023. Hill alleges that after that occurred, the rights would revert again to him.
In response to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios rushed forward with the undertaking anyway so as to end it earlier than the copyright deadline. Because it was stymied by the actor’s strike, Hill alleges Amazon used AI to “replicate the voices” of the actors who labored within the 2024 remake. Such use violated the phrases of the deal struck between the union and main studios together with Amazon.
The declare is difficult by the truth that Hill signed a “work-made-for-hire” cope with the unique producer, United Artists. That successfully implies that the studio hiring the author could be each the proprietor and copyright holder of the work. Hill, nonetheless, dismissed that as “boilerplate” usually utilized in contracts.
The lawsuit seeks to dam the discharge of the movie, set to bow at SXSW on March eighth earlier than (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 on this film.” It added that if AI was utilized, it was solely accomplished in early variations of the movies. Afterward, filmmakers have been instructed to take away any “AI or non-SAG AFTRA actors” for the ultimate model. It added that different allegations are “categorically false” and that it believes its copyright on the unique Highway Home has but to run out.
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