The Deepfakes in Kendrick Lamar’s Latest Music Video Reveal Real Issues in U.S. Copyright Law

The American rapper Kendrick Lamar recently released a music video entitled “The Heart Part 5”. In the video, Lamar transforms into celebrities, including Will Smith and Kobe Bryant, using deepfakes. Deepfakes employ “deep learning” technology to create fake videos and images of people. However, there are no copyright laws specifically addressing the use of deepfakes. Instead, deepfakes arguably fall under the “fair use” exception to copyright infringement. Accordingly, the celebrities who seemingly appear in the video may not have legal recourse under copyright law.