This week, a bill aimed at combating deepfakes will be reviewed in the United States. Although the initiative does not directly concern video games, it could still have an impact on them—and not in a positive way. At least, that’s the perspective of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
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The association sent a letter to the U.S. Senate, complaining about the language used in the bill. It pointed out that the authors of the document do not clearly distinguish between “harmful deepfakes” and legitimate digital replicas of people, which is a significant issue for gaming companies. The ESA explained that video games are abundant with realistically rendered characters that may bear a resemblance to specific individuals.
“The breadth of its current definition of “digital replica” threatens to engender frivolous lawsuits by those who may, even by coincidence, resemble a game character, especially one of the thousands of background characters present in video games. While the industry would likely prevail against such claims in court in the end, the time and expense of litigating such suits would be economically devastating,” ESA stated.
The ESA’s objections do not stop there. It is also dissatisfied with a section of the bill related to deepfake services — the document imposes liability for their use. However, the ESA fears that this list could include tools used by developers to create game characters.
ESA has requested amendments to the bill. The senators have not publicly commented on its request.