We’re making some updates to our Terms of Service today, May 10, 2023.
No action is required of you, but we want to keep you informed.
In this article
Why we’re making these changes
With the rise of artificial intelligence in the voice over industry, we want to make it very clear to our talent community that their demos and auditions on our platform are secure and will not be used for any AI purposes.
To reflect that fact in our Terms of Service, section 14 (d) now reads:
License to User Generated Content. Each User grants to Voices (and any third
party authorized by Voices) an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, unrestricted, fully
paid up, royalty free, non-exclusive right and license to reproduce, copy, publish,
perform in public, communicate to the public by telecommunication, disseminate,
optimize (including search engine optimization), synchronize with other content and
materials, edit, translate, transcribe, close caption and otherwise store, use and
process all User Generated Content (in whole or in part, as is or as may be edited)
and any materials based upon or derived therefrom for the purpose of providing the
Services, promoting Voices, its services and the Site. User hereby
waives all moral rights (and all other rights of a like or similar nature) that User may
have in the User Generated Content in favour of Voices (and any third party
authorized by Voices to use such User Generated Content).
For the avoidance of doubt, the license and waiver granted in this Section
14 (d) by Talent in respect of Talent Content (such as auditions and
demonstrations) will not permit Voices to use Talent Content to create, train, or
develop artificial intelligence technology (including to create synthetic or computer
generated voices based on the Talent’s natural voice), without Talent’s express
written consent.
A new section was added that will protect both clients and talent if a talent chooses to use an AI voice as a demo, audition, or final deliverable, which is referred to as a work product:
11 (b) If any Work Product in a voice format will be created or rendered (in whole or in part) using means other than Talent’s unmodified natural voice, including using synthetic or computer-generated voices or artificial intelligence software or algorithm (“Artificial Work Product”), then Talent shall expressly disclose and identify such Artificial Work Product and describe the means by which such Artificial Work Product will be produced (e.g. to be generated using artificial intelligence software) in the applicable Job Agreement.
Another layer of protection for talent has been put in place regarding web scraping. Section 9 (e) states:
User: will not use any software, device, or process to scrape or copy profiles and/or data from the Site (including crawlers, browser plugins, add-ons, or any other technology).
We believe in full transparency and you can always access archived versions of our Terms of Service.
How we’re protecting talent even further
We believe in the Three Cs when it comes to working with synthetic or AI voice. They are:
Consent
Voice talent must give explicit consent to a platform or company to have their data used, and there should also be clarity on how their data is used. The voice over artist must know that their voice is being used to train an AI voice. The artist should be empowered to ensure that their voice will be used in ways they deem appropriate and that words that their clone is expected to say align with their personal values.
Credit
Voice talent should be credited for their work and the use of their cloned voice.
Compensation
Voice talent should be compensated for their work and any of their data used in AI voice creation. Compensation might be arranged on a per-project basis, or if providing a branded voice for one company, remuneration on an annual contract, with terms around the licensing and use of the voice.
We believe that the parameters we’ve laid out above will ensure that you and your work are protected and that you can use synthetic voice, if you wish to, as a way to increase efficiency and flexibility in your day-to-day work.
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