The Implications of Combining Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality with Music
However, in the case of most artists, holding performances online alone is not enough engagement for fans to open their pockets.[1] A big draw of in-person performances is the live music and ability to share the moment with the performing artist and other surrounding fans. This is where concerts integrated with AR or VR technology may provide a hook enticing enough for audience members to provide some monetary payment to participate in such hosted events. VR concerts allow for users (also known as “players”) to participate in live streamed concerts performed by actual artists (both “in avatar, animated or even anime form) within a video game or other virtual environment at a specific time.”[2] VR concerts can provide something more immersive, akin to a live, in-person concert more so than the traditional pay-per-view.[3] Augmented reality is a term coined by Tom Caudell in 1990 where real-world elements are overlaid with computer-generated objects.[4] Because AR includes aspects of the real world, there are concerns of security and privacy risks. Hackers with ill intent that infiltrate the platform can conceivably steal personal data, affect data integrity, or add harmful data that could cause physical injury.[5] Pokémon GO, an AR game, is a prime example of when AR blurs the line between cyberspace and physical space, leading to unintended, harmful consequences to users.[6]
During this “untact” and “ontact” trend, a major entertainment company in South Korea introduced a new girl group to pioneer as “a new and innovative group that projects a future world centered on celebrities and avatars and transcends boundaries between the real and virtual worlds.”[7] The name for this musical group, aespa, combines “‘ae’ deriv[ing] from ‘Avatar X Experience’ & ‘aspect’”.[8] Each member of the group has a virtual counterpart in the form of an avatar based on their likeness and are marketed with AI brains and unique personalities created from online content of each member that allow them to engage fans in the digital world without the limitations of certain human traits.[9] Although there are pros to AI members from a marketing aspect, there are some unintended concerns that require attention.
Copyright law protects “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”[10] Avatars are generally created by a team of engineers, content creators, and artists from the same company, but also involving third party companies.[11] Like for comic characters that achieve the “distinctiveness required for copyrightability only by the combined contributions of the penciler, the inker, and the colorist,” to sufficiently carry “stock character over the line into copyright land,” the aespa avatars are created through the collaboration of various groups.[12] A smart company will have written provisions in each employee’ and third party contracts to vest ownership of any copyrights to the company or made clear that portions of the work that were outsourced was a “work made for hire.”[13] But once the avatar is completed and if the avatar is given an AI brain and the capability to amass data and interact with other humans based on the collected data, there are numerous questions about the intersection of these avatars with the basics tenets of copyright law. These questions include who would become the author of the succeeding works? Would these works be deemed to be created by the computer-generated avatars or be considered work produced by the teams that initially created the avatar? Would the artists themselves have any claims? What can the artists do to protect themselves?
Copyright law has been clear that only humans can be authors in the context of copyright law.[14] So what about AI computers that have human traits and an ability to respond? The Compendium of the U.S. Copyright Office further only states that works produced by a machine without any creativity provided by human author do not quality for copyright protection.[15] Still as a new area of research, there are several opinions being offered in the discussion “on whether AI output should be considered a human or an AI creation.”[16]
Further implications to situations like aespa are that the avatars were created based on the real-life members and are supposed to develop in parallel to the real artists as time progresses. While the virtual characters may last for eternity, what happens when the artists leave the group or the human group disbands entirely? “Publicity rights, also known as image or personality rights, is the right of an individual to control the commercialization of their identity, such as their image and likeness.”[17] Complex contentions may rise between an artist’s rights to retain control over their personality rights when such rights conflict with the company’s copyright and ownership rights over the AI characters.[18] Most likely, the decisive factor as to a potential winner in litigation would be based on the contract between the artist and the company.
Beyond the legal implications of marketing and use of these virtual characters, there are ethical and moral concerns that the characters may welcome “deepfakes” and sexual exploitation crimes.[19] If celebrities already fall victim to such exploitation, wouldn’t these virtual avatars open additional forms of misuse?[20] In addition to ethical concerns about the performer and creators, the audiences and fans may raise their own concerns. Aespa fans are encouraged to build relations with the avatars, creating concerns of privacy should fans, especially minors, confide personal information or suicidal thoughts.[21] Moral questions arise on whether the management company has a burden to do more, like disclose information to the authorities or the appropriate venues when they receive data including suicidal or harmful thoughts. In such situations, the management company will have to balance their social responsibility toward the public and the privacy of the fans.[22]
Integrating AR and VR into the music industry will bring more enriching and unique experiences that transcend limitations the offline world can’t, but there are still contentions with current laws that must be addressed to handle ownership rights and protect artists. Most likely, finer details of legal rights will be required in the contracts between the real human artists and the management company that created the virtual characters.[23] Only time will tell whether these virtual platforms really are the “beginning of the future of entertainment” or just a fad that took off during a time untact and ontact interaction was necessary.[24]
Footnotes
