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Latest / Media, elections and online safety

Enforcement or court caseMediaWorkChinaReported

Beijing court rules that cloning a voice actor’s voice with AI infringes the actor’s rights

See how this story connects

Source: China Daily: AI-generated voice mimicry infringes on rightsAlso reported by China IP Law Update

The Beijing Internet Court announced on 23 April 2024 that an AI text-to-speech product built from a voice actor’s recordings without the actor’s consent infringed the actor’s personal rights over the voice under China’s Civil Code. The media company that supplied the recordings and the software company that built the product were ordered to pay the actor, surnamed Yin, 250,000 yuan. The court said an AI voice is protected when listeners can link its timbre, intonation and style to a specific person.

Why it matters

Companies in China that train or sell synthetic voices need the speaker’s own consent, and holding a recording licence from a client does not cover AI cloning.

When
23 Apr 2024
ID
WTA-N-2024-0069
Where
China
Who
Beijing Internet Court
Authority
Beijing Internet Court
Target
A media company and a software company
Action
ruling: voice rights infringed; 250,000 yuan (imposed)
Status
decided · Enforcement ledger

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from China Daily and the reporting credited above. We could not open the primary document, so it is marked Reported. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at China Daily

Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Earlier in this Storyline: What led hereBeijing Internet Court grants copyright in an AI-generated image to the user who prompted it

Cite this story

WTA-N-2024-0069: “Beijing court rules that cloning a voice actor’s voice with AI infringes the actor’s rights.” wheresthe.ai, 23 Apr 2024. https://wheresthe.ai/d/cn-beijing-internet-court-ai-voice-ruling-2024-04/ (source: China Daily: AI-generated voice mimicry infringes on rights).

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