Voice actors class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage filed a class action lawsuit against LOVO Inc.
- Why: Lehrman and Sage claim LOVO stole the voices used by its client to create and edit voice-over narrations.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.
Artificial intelligence (AI) voice generator LOVO Inc. stole the voices used by its clients to create millions of voice-over productions, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiffs Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage’s class action lawsuit claims LOVO failed to acquire permission from voice-over actors prior to taking their voices so they could be used to create voice-over productions.
Lehrman and Sage, who are both voice actors, also argue LOVO failed to properly compensate voice actors prior to allegedly stealing their voices.
“To be clear, the product that customers purchase from LOVO is stolen property,” the LOVO class action says.
Lehrman and Sage want to represent a nationwide class of individuals whose voices were used by LOVO without permission or proper compensation for the purpose of “creating or refining” its text-to-speech generator, whose name or stage name was used by LOVO to market its services without authorization or proper compensation, or whose AI-replicated voice was used, licensed or sold without authorization or proper compensation.
Class action claims LOVO falsely marketed that it had legal right to voices it used
Lehrman and Sage argue LOVO falsely markets that it has the legal right to market the voices it uses for its proprietary software.
“They are voices stolen by LOVO and marketed by LOVO under false pretenses: LOVO represents that it has the legal right to market these voices, but it does not,” the LOVO class action says.
Lehrman and Sage claim LOVO is guilty of fraud, unjust enrichment and tortious interference with advantageous business relationship, and violating the Lanham Act, the New York False Advertising Act, the New York Deceptive Practices Act and two sections of New York Civil Rights Law.
The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and request declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of compensatory, actual, statutory and punitive damages for themselves and all class members.
A group of visual artists filed a similar class action lawsuit against Alphabet Inc. and Google LLC in April over claims they trained their AI software with datasets that contained copyrighted images.
Has LOVO used the voice of you or someone you know without permission? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Steve Cohen and Anna Menkova of Pollock Cohen LLP.
The Voice actors class action lawsuit is Axelrod, et al. v. Lenovo (United States) Inc., Case No. 4:21-cv-06770, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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