What is this about?
Making sure that the content which you upload to the Community Content Hub does not infringe the rights of any other person or company is your responsibility. We therefore ask you to be careful when uploading content which contains, or refers to, material which you do not own. Voicemoddoes not actively monitor content which you upload, but we may take it down if an intellectual property (IP) owner complains to us.
This page is designed to give you a short overview of the IP rights which could come into play when you use the Community Content Hub, but it’s up to you to check that you have the necessary rights or permissions, and this page is not legal advice. If you are still unsure of your position after reading these Guidelines, you may want to do some further research or consult a lawyer.
If you own IP rights and believe that those rights have been infringed on the Platform, you can submit a notification in accordance with our Copyright Policy.
Trademarks
Broadly speaking, trademarks are signs which identify brands. The most common types of trademark are brand names, logos or slogans, but more unusual things like shapes, images, or even video and audio clips can also be protected. The purpose of trademarks is to allow an IP owner to prevent confusion about who is offering a product or service, and to stop other people from piggybacking on an established brand, which can tarnish or ‘dilute’ it in the process.
Almost anything can be registered as a trademark, as long as the owner meets the right criteria. Even ordinary words which you find in the dictionary (like “apple”).
Most well-known trademarks are registered, which means you can find them by searching the database of the relevant registry. But, if a brand has been trading for a long time or has a particularly big reputation, it can also get “unregistered” trademark rights automatically. So you can’t always assume that, if something is not registered as a trademark, it is free to use.
What should you avoid?
If the content you upload includes a trademark in its title or description, users of the Community Content Hub might be confused about whether the brand which owns that trademark has licensed, authorised or endorsed that content. This could amount to trademark infringement.
Similarly, if you use a trademark in the content of your files (as opposed to in its name or description), people who view it might think that it is authorised by the owner of the trademark. Again, this could amount to trademark infringement.
What might be OK?
It is possible, under the law of some countries, to use trademarks descriptively, or to refer to a product or service without suggesting that you or your content are in any way associated to it. Take the sentence “I think Voicemodis a great tool” as an example. Even though this sentence uses the Voicemod trademark, it is just expressing an opinion about the platform. The trademark is not being used as a trademark – i.e. to tell people that something is coming from a particular commercial source. It is also not suggesting to consumers that you are in any way associated with Voicemod, and so is unlikely to be infringing. By contrast, the situation would be very different if you launched your own online service called “Voicemod” or a range of t-shirts which have “Voicemod written on them.
This is a good general rule of thumb to follow, but bear in mind that trademark law is complicated, and the rules differ from country to country. If in any doubt, it’s safer not to refer to the trademark at all.
Copyright
Copyright protects, among other things, original content. Most creative works can be protected by copyright, including text, sounds, music, video, art and design drawings, and in some cases even things like vehicles or buildings. Copyright usually arises automatically and is owned by the creator of the work.
What should you avoid?
If you copy, modify or share content protected by copyright, without the owner’s permission, you could be committing copyright infringement. It makes no difference that the content may be easy to find online.
It’s a common misconception that, if you see other people using a piece of content, it must be safe to use. This is often not the case. The other people you see could have obtained permission; or it may just be that the copyright owner has not got around to enforcing their rights yet.
When creating audio or video clips, you should be careful not to use third party sounds (including music) or footage, unless you have a licence from the owner.
What might be OK?
You may have heard of “fair dealing” or “fair use”. These are exceptions to copyright infringement, which apply in specific and limited circumstances, and which vary between countries.
The fair dealing and fair use exceptions are complicated and sensitive to the facts of each situation. If you include somebody else’s work in your content, there is no single rule you can follow which will always make you safe. In general terms, these exceptions exist to allow people to make very brief references to copyright works in certain circumstances, for example when reviewing somebody else’s content.
There is a tendency among online creators to overestimate how helpful the fair dealing and fair use exceptions will be in their circumstances. Be wary of this, and if you think you do fall into one of the exceptions, remember that it will be your responsibility to prove it if there is a dispute.
Other rights
There are other intellectual property rights, like patents, design rights, confidentiality and unfair competition or passing off, but these are less likely to be relevant to most people using our Community Content Hub, so we are not going to go into detail about them. If you are concerned that your use could infringe any of these rights, we suggest that you speak to a professional.
What could happen if you upload infringing content?
The most likely outcome is that the owner of the IP rights will ask us to take the content down. In some circumstances, for example if you are a repeat offender, we could also terminate your account.
By using the Platform, you have agreed to our Terms of Use, which say that you must not upload anything which infringes somebody’s intellectual property rights, and that, if you do, we could take action against you to recover any losses which we suffer. The owner of the IP rights could also take action against you directly.
Nobody wants any of this to happen, so we encourage you to do your research before using somebody else’s IP rights, stick to these Guidelines, and use Voicemod responsibly.
Special reference to the AI Voice Creator Tool
The AI Voice Creator is a self service tool that allows you to create your own voice using Voicemod´s gen AI technology. To do so, you need to upload a recording of your voice or a recording of a voice that you have the rights to use. The tool will create an AI voice that you can then use to do Text To Speech (in the TTS section) or Speech to Speech in your Voicebox. In addition, you can also share it with the Community in the Community Content Hub.
As our Terms reflect, you are the only person responsible for the use you make of this, so we thought we’d give you some extra guidance on top of the general IP guidelines above.
Most countries do not have specific laws regulating the use of generative AI or topics related to it, such as deep fakes. However other existing laws can still apply here even if they were not designed with AI in mind. The top things we’d like you to know are:
– The input you upload to the AI Voice Creator. As you´ll see, we ask you to confirm you have permission or rights to use the voice recordings that you are uploading. Whilst generally there is no issue if you stick to using your own voice, you should know that if you use voice recordings of a person without having rights for it, in addition to the general intellectual property rights we´ve described above, you could be infringing other rights, such as privacy laws, confidentiality obligations, rights to personal image, publicity, etc. These laws and their exceptions vary by country.
– Likewise, the use you make of the created AI voice could be problematic if you violate intellectual property rights or other people’s rights. For example, while making some parody is generally ok, especially if done within a group of friends, things could change a lot if you use a voice to try to impersonate someone else without letting the listeners know it was you the whole time. The list of potential problems could be long, as it is not linked to the gen AI itself but to your actions with it: impersonation, fraud, damage to honour, reputation… This is a great tool to have fun with, so use it accordingly and wisely.
As a reminder, this is not legal advice. If you have any questions you should check with your lawyer.
