Clube da Voz, aware of its responsibilities, rights and obligations, hereby informs publicly, clearly and unequivocally, that any unauthorized use of the voices of the professionals that the association represents is inadmissible, especially those with the direct or indirect objective of replacing voice professionals, whether they are the owners of the voice that is intended to be replaced or not, with a commercial nature or not, and through the use of any artificial intelligence tool or similar technological tool.
In a scenario in which new technological tools and resources are emerging at an ever-increasing rate, we reaffirm that it is essential that the entire audiovisual market unquestionably respects the rights of voice professionals, both in non-commercial and commercial creative and interpretive activities. This means that no voice of any professional may be used without their due authorization, under penalty of violating their rights.
We know that technological development brings unquestionable benefits to human beings and, in this sense, we believe that all tools that can help different social classes achieve better living conditions and achieve social justice, work balance and economic benefits are valid.
With the emergence of the press, an event that for the first time, disruptively, allowed access to intellectual and cultural production in a broad way, the perception of knowledge was modified and a new era began.
As a consequence of this phenomenon and the development of many other technological means in the following centuries, humanity has evolved greatly and has always needed to safeguard ethical and legal conditions to ensure the best balance in social relations. The advent and advancement of generative artificial intelligence tools are found in this context, which, ultimately, can be understood as a scenario of social evolution.
It is essential to emphasize that any technological development – including new artificial intelligence resources – must respect the rights established and already recognized by current laws and legal systems, and this understanding cannot be different for the specific sector of voice-overs and audio interpretations.
Activities such as the inclusion of voice in AI databases; the use of voice to train AI databases; data mining; the modification, reformulation, transformation and adaptation of voice; as well as its use out of context or as a basis for synthesizing other voices, among other examples, depend on express and direct authorization from authors and rights holders, and must remain so in any present or future scenario, or in light of the availability of new technologies.
In the case of Brazil, it is always worth remembering that violation of the voice implies violation of personality rights provided for in the civil code (Law 10,460, arts. 11 to 21) and, when applicable, also of interpretations protected under the copyright system (Law 9,610/98). In the same direction, the image is also subject to constitutional protection in its aspects of image-portrait and image-attribute, it being certain that the latter implies recognition of the voice as an element that forms a person (art. 5, items V, IX and X).
Clube da Voz understands that the audiovisual sector in Brazil is aware of the technological changes that have been implemented and, aware of its legal, ethical and professional responsibilities, also believes in joint awareness-raising efforts so that both the market can continue to be active in contemporary times and the rights of professionals are respected in their integrity.
