ESA is concerned that the American bill against deepfakes could harm video games
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 “malicious 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 broad interpretation of the current definition of ‘digital replica’ [in the context of deepfakes] poses the risk of unfounded lawsuits from people who might accidentally resemble video game characters, especially if they resemble one of the thousands of NPCs. Although ultimately our industry would prevail in such lawsuits, it would face catastrophic financial damage due to the amount of time and resources spent on litigation,” 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.