In a significant relief for Aishwarya Rai, the Delhi High Court on Thursday, September 11, safeguarded the personality rights of the Bollywood actress by prohibiting all online platforms from unlawfully utilizing her name or image for commercial gain.
The High Court noted that the unauthorized use of a celebrity’s identity can lead to financial damage and violate their right to live with dignity. This ruling was issued on September 9 and was made public on Thursday, September 11.
According to Hindustan Times, Justice Tejas Karia has prohibited various entities from exploiting the name, image, and likeness of the actress through technological means, including Artificial Intelligence. The court stated that such exploitation not only results in financial damage to Bachchan but also adversely affects her dignity, reputation, and goodwill.
It was stated that the unauthorized utilization of her identity could mislead individuals into thinking that she endorses or supports various products and services.
“Personality rights grant an individual the authority to manage and safeguard the use of their image, name, and likeness,” the court remarked, emphasizing that misuse also infringes upon the right to live with dignity.
An ex parte ad interim injunction was issued in her favor, prohibiting defendants, including unidentified parties, from utilizing her name “Aishwarya Rai Bachchan”, the acronym “ARB”, her image, likeness, and other attributes for commercial or personal benefit. This order is applicable to all technologies, including AI, deepfakes, face morphing, and machine learning, across any medium.
The court instructed Google LLC to remove the URLs specified in the lawsuit within 72 hours and to submit the subscriber information of the operators in a sealed format. Additionally, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was mandated to block the URLs within a period of seven days.
Emphasizing her status as one of India’s most renowned actresses and brand representatives, the court stated that any exploitation of her image would undermine her goodwill.
Rai had approached the court requesting protection against online platforms that are unlawfully distributing AI-generated pornographic material and misappropriating her identity. Justice Karia verbally suggested an interim order warning the defendants.