Genshin Impact maker miHoYo has won a case in Shanghai against an unnamed company that sold AI copies of 63 of the game's character voices without permission.
On September 10 the Pudong New Area court ordered the firm to stop and pay 750,000 yuan, about $112,000. Its service let users speak live in the characters' voices, and it used game art, animations and altered character faces in its ads and let buyers preview lines.
The firm said its models reflected what users supplied and that the voices belonged to the actors. Voiceprint tests found an almost exact match, and it admitted training on a minute of stolen audio.
The court held the designs are protected by copyright and the voices work like a trademark, so the conduct was unfair competition. The ruling, first reported by The Paper, comes as voice actors in Japan call for rules on cloning.
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