Kerala CM calls for timely legal reforms to tackle AI, deepfakes and copyright violations
Kochi: Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Saturday called for timely amendments to legal frameworks to meet the challenges posed by fast-moving technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), saying laws must keep pace with the ways creative work is now produced, copied and shared.
He was inaugurating a two-day seminar titled ‘Music, Cinema and Law: Exploring the Intersections of Art, Culture and Law’, organised jointly by the Kerala Judicial Academy and the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) in Kochi.
The Chief Minister said that with the advancement of technology, the tendency to copy other people’s creative works and to violate copyright had been on the rise.
“At a time when music and visuals are being generated using AI, the threat of digital defamation and deepfakes is also on the rise. The legal framework requires timely amendments to take on the challenges,” he said.
He did not spell out the specific statutes he had in mind. Under India’s constitutional division of powers, copyright and the core laws governing digital content are Union subjects, while States are responsible for policing and prosecution. Changes to the copyright regime would therefore require action at the Centre, although States can influence enforcement and training of investigators and prosecutors.
Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court Soumen Sen said that while art expresses human experiences, law aims at regulating and protecting them. Justice V. Mohana of the Supreme Court was the chief guest at the event.
Higher Education Minister Roji M. John, Kerala Judicial Academy Board of Governors president Justice Anil K. Narendran, academy director K.N. Sujith and NUALS Vice-Chancellor G.B. Reddy were among those who spoke.
The seminar brings together judges, lawyers and academics to examine how law interacts with music, cinema and the wider creative economy. Discussions are expected to cover copyright in film music, personality and publicity rights, fair use, and the regulation of synthetic media.
Digitisation has made unauthorised copying of recordings, footage and artwork cheaper and faster, and rights holders in India and abroad have repeatedly approached courts over the unlicensed use of their material. Separately, rights holders in several countries have taken technology companies to court over the use of copyrighted works to train AI systems, a question that remains largely untested in Indian courts.
Deepfakes — manipulated audio or video that can make it appear a person said or did something they did not — have raised concerns about defamation, privacy and the integrity of public information. India does not yet have a dedicated law on deepfakes; authorities have so far relied on existing provisions in the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the criminal law. Several countries are debating rules that would require AI-generated content to be labelled.
The central difficulty, speakers noted, is protecting creators’ rights and reputations without curbing legitimate artistic expression, which is protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Courts have often had to weigh that right against claims of defamation and privacy.
The Kerala Judicial Academy trains judicial officers in the State, while NUALS is a national law university based in Kochi. The seminar is being held over two days.
