New Delhi: The Delhi High Court On Tuesday he highlighted the extent of human rights while hearing a suit filed by Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma seeking protection against the illegal use of his name, image and likeness on platforms, including AI-generated content.The matter came before Justice Jyoti Singh, who reviewed several of Sharma’s links which were found to be infringing on his rights. During the hearing, the Court also drew attention to the growing relationship between human rights and defamation in the digital age.
The flags of the Delhi HC are intertwined between human rights and defamation
Considering the submissions of the challengers, Justice Singh observed that disputes over content on the Internet often draw a distinction between defamation and human rights.“We also find this every day where there is a very thin line between defamation and human rights. It fluctuates. There is a slight inconsistency. Defamation can have an element of human rights,” said Justice Singh.The Court’s decision came as it considered whether the online content against him was merely defamatory or amounted to unauthorized use of Sharma’s identity through intellectual property.
Controversy centers around AI-edited photography
Appearing for Meta, advocate Varun Pathak told the Court that out of the eight URLs currently under consideration, two are no longer available. Regarding the remaining links, Pathak said that they appeared to be a “paparazzi type” and, in his opinion, were not a violation of human rights.Sharma’s counsel, however, strongly disagreed with that behavior.Advocate Thakur, who appears to be a football player, said the case did not involve a casual paparazzi photo. In fact, he said that the original photo of Sharma and his manager was allegedly edited using artificial intelligence by changing his face and story, resulting in a false image created by AI.According to the petitioner, the digitally altered photo misrepresented others and was an illegal use of Sharma’s personality.Responding to the Court’s statement, Mr. Pathak said that false or suspicious statements about a person are often defamatory or confidential rather than a personal right.He added that expanding human rights claims to include all the evils of the Internet would create serious challenges for mediators.According to Meta, Sharma initially went to Court with around 25 URLs, but the number of allegedly infringing links later increased to around 4,000.Pathak said that accepting such an interpretation would require arbitrators to “clean up the internet” of things that incriminate the plaintiff, even if they violate human rights.
The matter has been remanded for further hearing
After hearing both the sides, the Delhi High Court adjourned the matter till July 9, observing that certain issues related to the case required attention.The case is among a growing number of cases pending before the Delhi High Court involving celebrities seeking protection from illegal trade or manipulation of their names, images, likenesses and AI-driven images.Due to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence tools for creating real-time images and videos, courts are being asked to investigate claims of copyrighted, digitally modified and unauthorized use.
