BG3 Male Narrator Mod

[Crowbar Cigo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JEsITGIlVw

It has been taken down from nexus mods.

This sounds so good, no disrespect to the original VA, but it would have been nice to have the option to switch between playthroughs, can somebody please give me a copy for personal use? :(

[votadc]

Makes no sense. Not harmful too.
Who Is Amelia? The Italian name of Magic De Spell?

[Crowbar Cigo]

I mean this whole AI thing is not really sorted out yet, and I get it. I am on the side of the artist, but this is a mod, not some company. No one is trying to make a profit here.

[Remnant Melody]

If I remember correctly, there were cease and desist order sent to nexus from Amelia Taylor's lawyers. So, the artist did not appreciate the mod. :) Respect the artist.. and A.I is garbage. No qualms about it being remove imho.. but que the antiwokers in 3...2....1..

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Crowbar Cigo:

BG3 Male Narrator Mod (Morgan Freeman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JEsITGIlVw

It has been taken down from nexus mods.

This sounds so good, no disrespect to the original VA, but it would have been nice to have the option to switch between playthroughs, can somebody please give me a copy for personal use? :(

That sounds pretty cool. Why was it taken down this time?

[id795078477]

Originally posted by Crowbar Cigo:

I mean this whole AI thing is not rally sorted out yet, and I get it. I am on the side of the artist, but this is a mod, not some company. No one is trying to make a profit here.

Well, there are three sides of the equation legally speaking:

-- The copyright owner (the artist in this case)
-- The distributor (nexus in this case)
-- The producer (the mod author in this case)

and that I refer to from the copyright law which only very remooootely has anything to do with AI. We just don't have necessary legislation. So the liability of each part of this equation is to be established, but seeing as the distributor, i.e. nexus - is among those parts, they decided to take it down just in case.

This way if there will be any dispute arising, they are sure they won't be liable for anything. Which is a reasonable risk mitigation strategy if we remember that they don't get anything from the mod author, i.e. it's a "zero reward, non-zero risk" situation.

[Crowbar Cigo]

@アンジェル

Originally posted by SassyKitKats:

If I remember correctly, there were cease and desist order sent to nexus from Amelia Taylor's lawyers. So, the artist did not appreciate the mod. :) Respect the artist.. and A.I is garbage. No qualms about it being remove imho.. but que the antiwokers in 3...2....1..

@SassyKitKats

I respect your opinion, but like I said, I really like it, and mods have been around for ages. What is it to any lawyer or VA, how I play my video games. No one is undermining her performance, but I am about to start my 3rd playthrough, and it would have been nice to play it with a male narrator like in the DOS games.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by Crowbar Cigo:

I mean this whole AI thing is not rally sorted out yet, and I get it. I am on the side of the artist, but this is a mod, not some company. No one is trying to make a profit here.

Well, there are three sides of the equation legally speaking:

-- The copyright owner (the artist in this case)
-- The distributor (nexus in this case)
-- The producer (the mod author in this case)

and that I refer to from the copyright law which only very remooootely has anything to do with AI. We just don't have necessary legislation. So the liability of each parts of this equation is to be established, but seeing as the distributor, i.e. nexus - is part of it, they decided to take it down just in case.

This way if there will be any dispute arising, they are sure they won't be liable for anything. Which is a reasonable risk mitigation strategy if we remember that they don't get anything from the mod author, i.e. it's a "zero reward, non-zero risk" situation.

Originally posted by Crowbar Cigo:

@アンジェル

Originally posted by SassyKitKats:

If I remember correctly, there were cease and desist order sent to nexus from Amelia Taylor's lawyers. So, the artist did not appreciate the mod. :) Respect the artist.. and A.I is garbage. No qualms about it being remove imho.. but que the antiwokers in 3...2....1..

@SassyKitKats

I respect your opinion, but like I said, I really like it, and mods have been around for ages. What is it to any lawyers, how I play my video games. No one is undermining her performance, but I am about to start my 3 playthrough, and it would have been nice to play it with a male narrator like in the DOS games.

Eh. Too confusing. There were plenty of "sound alike" mods here and there before, and those never caused any issue.

I mean, it is not Morgan Freeman speaking but the voice actor of the male narrator yada yada and their voice changed.

So the mentioned Taylor thing does not make sense either as it should go actually the other way around with the original voice actor having a case to disagree.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

So the mentioned Taylor thing does not make sense either as it should go actually the other way around with the original voice actor having a case to disagree.

So here's the thing - we don't know what "should" and what "should not" happen according to the law when it comes to AI cases, simply because we're missing said law. But it will arrive pretty soon (hopefully) before we drown in the sea of AI content.

This means it's unwise to engage into distributing or otherwise producing AI content if you have something which could look appealing to sue for profits. Nexus is a private company and I'd wager not a huge one, but still - they have their money and recognition which means it's worth going after them in a legal battle. So they just don't want to risk it.

[Boozehound]

I'd use a Gilbert Gottfried, Bobcat Goldthwait or maybe a Fran Dresher mod. Let's do it!

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

So the mentioned Taylor thing does not make sense either as it should go actually the other way around with the original voice actor having a case to disagree.

So here's the thing - we don't know what "should" and what "should not" happen according to the law when it comes to AI cases, simply because we're missing said law. But it will arrive pretty soon (hopefully) before we drown in the sea of AI content.

This means it's unwise to engage into distributing or otherwise producing AI content if you have something which could look appealing to sue for profits. Nexus is a private company and I'd wager not a huge one, but still - they have their money and recognition which means it's worth going after them in a legal battle. So they just don't want to risk it.

Yeah, that makes absolutely sense. I just no much room for an issue aside that the mod is called Morgan Freeman mod? I mean why? If it is just called alternative male voice mod or for worse black God mod, I cannot imagine it having these issues when female gale mod or Youtuber mods are still there.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by id795078477:

So here's the thing - we don't know what "should" and what "should not" happen according to the law when it comes to AI cases, simply because we're missing said law. But it will arrive pretty soon (hopefully) before we drown in the sea of AI content.

This means it's unwise to engage into distributing or otherwise producing AI content if you have something which could look appealing to sue for profits. Nexus is a private company and I'd wager not a huge one, but still - they have their money and recognition which means it's worth going after them in a legal battle. So they just don't want to risk it.

Yeah, that makes absolutely sense. I just no much room for an issue aside that the mod is called Morgan Freeman mod? I mean why? If it is just called alternative male voice mod or for worse black God mod, I cannot imagine it having these issues when female gale mod or Youtuber mods are still there.

The "why" from the modder side is and easy one - recognition. Trying to capitalize on the celebrity's name to get more exposure (downloads, I guess?). Which is fine. But it also means that it's making the work of the hosting easier - they can deplatform the mod outright.

Imagine if it was called "alternative voice pack" - that sounded like Freeman. And then the author would not tell that it was actually used. It then would be a royal headache to definitively pinpoint that and verify that the voice was modulated from Freeman. If I owned nexus, I'd learn from this and amended the ToS so that modders are obligated to specify the originators of voices or any other asses they use in their AI-powered mods.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Yeah, that makes absolutely sense. I just no much room for an issue aside that the mod is called Morgan Freeman mod? I mean why? If it is just called alternative male voice mod or for worse black God mod, I cannot imagine it having these issues when female gale mod or Youtuber mods are still there.

The "why" from the modder side is and easy one - recognition. Trying to capitalize on the celebrity's name to get more exposure (downloads, I guess?). Which is fine. But it also means that it's making the work of the hosting easier - they can deplatform the mod outright.

Imagine if it was called "alternative voice pack" - that sounded like Freeman. And then the author would not tell that it was actually used. It then would be a royal headache to actually pinpoint that and verify that the voice was modulated from Freeman. If I owned nexus, I'd learn from this and amended the ToS so that modders are obligated to specify the originators of voices or any other asses they use in their AI-powered mods.

While I lean in to agree, I still see there a most obvious hurdle which you have implied in your argument: how can anyone be sure it is e.g. not the mod creator's own voice. Maybe a mod creator with e.g. the voice of Morgan Freeman just decides to use their own voice to change the voice lines.

Then again nothing indicates why a Morgan Freeman would have any legal means against it as they do not own a unique voice if it just happens that someone else sounds like them.

There have been in the past, especially within the voice actors scene, plenty of people who sounds so much alike that you cannot tell easily the voice actor has been changed. And then there are voice actors which work so great with their voice, it makes it really hard to recognise them to begin with unless they use their acting voice.

I think of Seth McFarlane as example. I have a hard time how to argue here if someone copies his Peter Griffin voice. And I also saw clips with people who managed to hit the tone so exactly that I can barely tell them apart.

So yeah, unless there is a way to identify the AI modifications it is a weird topic. It might take too long to get an AI who can reliably recognise a Morgan Freeman from Morgan Freeman sound-alikes.

[Xan]

To say it's murky waters doesn't really do it justice. You're taking a computer generated recreation of someone famous' voice without their permission, and dubbing over the dialogue and voice of someone else's paid work, also without their permission.

I wonder why people hosting a file sharing website who don't want to get sued might not like that kind of stuff.

[Quacksalber]

What's it got to do with Morgan Freeman, though?

[Xan]

Originally posted by Crowbar Cigo:

I mean this whole AI thing is not rally sorted out yet, and I get it. I am on the side of the artist, but this is a mod, not some company. No one is trying to make a profit here.

They don't have to profit off it for it to be against the law in the US.