SAG-AFTRA has gone on strike for many reasons, but one that stands out to me is an effort to make digital copies of extras and maintain the rights to use them in perpetuity. There are many implications of this, from people losing an opportunity to work, to Ethical implications ex:your likeness is used in a movie/tv show/commercial you would not want to be involved in.
I wanted to take a look at some of the past examples of entertainers likeness’ being used posthumously.
Fred Astaire Vaccuum Commercial
Bob Ross Paints the Mountain Dew
There are definitly more examples out there, if you know of any, post them here.
On a personal note, I find this all to be deeply unethical without specific permission granted by the entertainer.
Some souces:
Actors are digitally preserving themselves to continue their careers beyond the grave
Dead celebrities are being digitally resurrected — and the ethics are murky
My take: Companies can not take actor’s body image «for free forever» like they are trying to do, it is just theft and illegal.
If Disney wants to , say, take Harrison Ford body and make an Indiana Jones 6 with ‘‘him’’ (an animated rendering of his body), then they have to pay royalties, negotiate a contract, etc with the person, the same way any of them would do with their IPs. In general, everybody should have their body as their own IP really, by default and retroactively. With largely the same rules as the very IPs of these mergacorporations, so they enter public domain after a while too.
PS: i really want my AI-generated Buster Keaton and OG Popeye short films …