Synthetic Media and Intellectual Property: Who Owns Rights in Artificial Realities?
- Juniper IP
- Jul 4
- 4 min read
Synthetic media refers to digitally created content—such as audio, images, videos, and texts—generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that produce highly realistic but fictionalized digital materials. This new media universe, ranging from deepfake technologies and AI-generated influencers to digital twins and AI-composed songs, is significantly challenging traditional intellectual property (IP) systems.
But who owns this digital reality? And how can such ownership be protected?
Types of Synthetic Media: Where Reality Meets Fiction
Synthetic media appears in various forms depending on the type of content and production method, including:
Deepfake Videos: The face or voice of a real person is artificially integrated into another video using AI. For example, the deepfake video showing Barack Obama seemingly delivering a speech he never gave (Buzzfeed, 2018).
AI-Generated Influencers: Fully artificial characters like Miquela who have millions of followers on social media and collaborate with brands.
Digital Twins: Digital replicas of real individuals. For instance, the digital version of James Dean was licensed to appear in a new film years after his death Variety, 2019).
AI-Composed Music, Written Novels, and Created Paintings: These works often involve minimal or no human input.
Intellectual Property Questions: Who Owns the Rights?
Authorship:Traditional copyright law assumes that the “author” is a human being. However, this principle is challenged when AI independently generates content almost entirely on its own.
Who owns the rights to a song composed by AI?
Is it only the person who programmed the software, or the user who directed the AI’s output?
According to a 2023 report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), many countries still lack a clear answer to this question. The U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) ruled in 2022 that purely AI-generated works cannot be protected by copyright. However, if there is human creative contribution, copyright protection may be granted (Source: USCO Copyright Review 2022).
Use of Faces and Voices: Personality Rights Deepfakes or digital twins raise issues of unauthorized use of a person’s identity elements:
Personality features such as face, expressions, voice, style, and accent are protected under “personality rights” or “rights of publicity” in many jurisdictions.
For example, Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against a producer company after her voice was copied without permission for an advertising campaign (Source: Forbes 2024)
In such cases, not only copyright but also personal data law, personality rights, and even trademark law come into play.
Are Artificial Characters Themselves Trademarks?Virtual influencers or digital mascots created by AI are often regarded less as “artworks” and more as brand elements. Digital personalities such as Miquela, Shudu, and Imma are distinctive commercial symbols due to their appearance, personality, and style of communication.
Can their names, faces, or images be registered?
Would creating a similar digital character by someone else constitute trademark infringement?
The answer is usually yes. Trademark registration, design protection, and visual identity safeguarding have become critical for these digital characters.
Data and Ethics in Synthetic Media: The Invisible Danger
The datasets used in producing synthetic media often consist of publicly available photos, audio files, YouTube videos, or social media content. Key questions around these datasets include:
With whose consent were they collected?
Are personal data being processed?
Does the data owner give permission?
Such questions fall directly under data protection regulations such as KVKK (Turkey), GDPR (EU), or CCPA (USA). The legal basis of AI-generated content depends on whether these datasets were collected “ethically.” Unethical use of data can invalidate all related intellectual property rights.
Real Examples: Not Fiction, But Reality
James Earl Jones’s voice (Darth Vader): In 2022, Jones gave Disney permission to recreate his voice using AI. A licensing agreement was signed for the future use of this voice via artificial means.
Bruce Willis: The retired actor licensed the use of his digital twin for advertising films. Later, his representatives clarified that this permission was time-limited and did not include full rights transfer.
Drake & The Weeknd Deepfake Song: In 2023, an anonymous user cloned the voices of these two artists to produce a song. The track went viral, but Universal Music Group quickly succeeded in removing it from circulation.
What’s Coming Next?
WIPO, EUIPO, and various national copyright offices are working on new legal frameworks related to synthetic media. Within 2024, the European Commission is expected to release a framework on copyright protection for AI-generated content as part of its “Artificial Intelligence Roadmap.”
Proposals also include:
Mandatory “AI-supported” labeling (transparency principle)
Chain-of-custody systems for synthetic content production
New types of rights: digital twin rights, algorithmic design rights, artificial content label rights
From Legal Uncertainty to Strategic Protection Synthetic media is not only a technical advancement but also a revolutionary shift in ethical, legal, and commercial realms. Within this transformation:
How will real individuals protect their identities?
How will companies commercialize their digital characters?
How will developers license their creations?
These questions will shape the evolution of intellectual property law in the coming years. Companies, artists, developers, and legal experts must learn to jointly manage both risks and opportunities in this new media landscape.