英语新闻丨Face-swapping app fined for infringements

A face-swapping service provider was fined 3,500 yuan ($482) by a Beijing court on Thursday for infringing upon the personal information of two women through the use of artificial intelligence.

6月20日，一家换脸服务提供商因使用人工智能侵犯了两名女性的个人信息，被北京一家法院处以3500元(482美元)的罚款。

The app operator was also ordered to cease the infringement and apologize to the pair, according to the ruling announced by the Beijing Internet Court.

根据北京互联网法院宣布的裁决，该应用程序运营商还被责令停止侵权并向两人道歉。

It was Beijing's first judgment on an infringement involving AI face-swapping software, said Sun Mingxi, a judge from the court.

该法院法官孙铭溪表示，这是北京第一次对涉及人工智能人脸识别软件的侵权行为做出判决。

She said the two women, both popular models for videos capturing the style of ancient China, separately turned to the court early last year after discovering their works were being used without permission by the same app as face-swapping templates that netizens could pay to use.

她说，这两位女性都是拍摄古代中国风视频的颇受欢迎的模特，去年年初分别发现她们的作品被同一款应用程序未经允许用作换脸模板，网民可以付费使用，于是她们分别向法院提起诉讼。

The plaintiffs said the app had infringed on their rights of portrait and personal data and asked the app operator, a Beijing technology company, to apologize and pay compensation, Sun said.

孙铭溪表示，原告称该应用侵犯了他们的肖像权和个人数据权，并要求该应用的运营商——北京一家科技公司——道歉并支付赔偿金。

Considering that the women had similar claims and the defendant was the same, the court decided to combine the two lawsuits into one trial to improve judicial efficiency and save legal costs.

考虑到女方诉求相近，被告相同，法院决定将两起诉讼合并为一次审理，以提高司法效率，节约诉讼成本。

During the trial on Thursday, the plaintiffs presented photos and videos of themselves that have been widely circulated online. In the videos, they are dressed in traditional Chinese costumes, sport ancient hairstyles and wear classical makeup.

在6月20日的审判中，原告展示了他们自己的照片和视频，这些照片和视频在网上广为流传。在视频中，他们穿着传统的中国服装，留着传统的发型，化着古典的妆。

They also displayed templates on the app with the same clothing and hairstyles, but with their faces erased by AI so that netizens could replace them with their own faces.

他们还在应用程序上显示了相同服装和发型的模板，但他们的脸被人工智能删除，以便网民可以用自己的脸替换他们。

"The app privately used videos containing my clients' portraits to create face-swapping templates, and even required others to pay to use the service for profit," said a lawyer representing both women. "The behaviors have damaged the clients' personal rights and interests."

“该应用程序私下使用含有我客户肖像的视频来创建换脸模板，甚至要求他人付费使用该服务以获利，”代表两位女性的律师说，“这些行为损害了客户的个人权益。”

The app operator argued that the videos used for face-swapping on its platform had legal sources and the images shown were not those of the plaintiffs, but it did not provide any evidence to the court.

该应用程序运营商辩称，其平台上用于换脸的视频有合法来源，显示的图像不是原告的图像，但它没有向法院提供任何证据。

After comparing the app templates and the videos provided by the plaintiffs, the court determined that the makeup, hairstyles, clothing, actions, lighting and camera angles in the templates were consistent with the videos.

在对比了应用程序模板和原告提供的视频后，法院认定模板中的妆容、发型、服装、动作、灯光、摄像角度与视频一致。

However, Sun, the judge, clarified that the defendant did not infringe upon the two plaintiffs' right of portrait, "because the app, when providing face-swapping templates to others, had removed the faces of the two women instead of distorting, defaming or forging the facial content, so it didn't constitute an infringement", she explained.

然而，法官孙铭溪说，被告没有侵犯两位原告的肖像权，“因为该应用程序在向他人提供换脸模板时，删除了两位女性的面部，而不是扭曲、诽谤或伪造面部内容，所以不构成侵权”。

"But in the process of applying AI to generate templates, the app operator illegally collected and used the videos containing the facial content of the two women, which had infringed on their personal data," she said. "Therefore, we've imposed the fine on the defendant."

“但在应用人工智能生成模板的过程中，应用程序运营商非法收集和使用了包含两名女性面部内容的视频，侵犯了她们的个人数据，”她说，“因此，我们对被告处以罚款。”

Of the fine, 2,500 yuan is to cover economic losses of the two women, and 1,000 yuan is for their mental anguish, she said.

她说，在罚款中，2500元用于赔偿两名妇女的经济损失，1000元用于赔偿她们的精神损失。

Sun added that it was a new kind of AI-related litigation, "and I hope the verdict will help regulate the application of the emerging technology and also promote the healthy development of the digital economy".

孙铭溪补充说，这是一种新的人工智能相关诉讼，“我希望这一判决将有助于规范新兴技术的应用，并促进数字经济的健康发展”。

face-swapping

换脸

face recognition

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