TikTok has agreed to settle a lawsuit with Bev Standing, the voice actress who stated she was behind the app’s authentic text-to-speech voice. Standing sued TikTok in Could, saying that the app was utilizing her voice with out permission. A robotic model of what appeared like Standing’s voice had been within the app for months, talking over what felt like each different video on the time.
A lawyer for Standing stated the settlement was nonetheless being finalized and particulars round fee couldn’t be disclosed. “They’ve reached an amicable decision,” Robert Sciglimpaglia, who represents Standing, stated in a cellphone name with The Verge. Sciglimpaglia stated TikTok would license Standing’s voice as a part of the settlement, however it’s as much as TikTok whether or not or to not use it. TikTok didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
It sounds as if some unusual mixup led to Standing’s voice being utilized by TikTok within the first place. Standing stated that she made recordings for a text-to-speech characteristic “a number of years in the past” however that they had been meant for use for translations of Chinese language texts. Nobody else was supposed to make use of them. However someway, her voice appears to have made its option to TikTok, the place it turned a near-ubiquitous presence.
“It doesn’t matter what I do, I consider that is going to have an effect on my enterprise,” Standing instructed The Telegraph on the time.
TikTok by no means confirmed that it used Standing’s voice, however the characteristic certain appeared like her. About two weeks after the lawsuit was filed, TikTok’s text-to-speech voice modified. As a substitute of Standing’s odd monotone recording, it modified to a voice that’s relentlessly upbeat. One assumes TikTok checked the copyright on it.
