A slippery slope, indeed. Some of the characters I write are visually based on real people, living or dead (for anyone who's read any part of the main story I'm working on, my Harkness character is the visual image of Phil Lynott, the late, great bassist/lead singer for Thin Lizzy), and I would, if my work ever came to the point of reality-via-animation that I dream of, I would pay any due royalties. But there are those unscrupulous bastiches (read H'Wood producers) who would see such a blatant image appropriation and turn a blind eye to it.
---------[ Received Mail Content ]---------- Subject : Re: [scifinoir2] Coming: Computer-Generated Actors Date : Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:48:51 -0500 From : "Dax" <nx_31...@yahoo.com> To : <scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com> The question I suppose comes to mind is what happens to the actors that are alive? What about actors such as Elvis that is dead? Will the estate get the rights to the image or the studio that they once worked for? A lot of legal questions but a very fascinating idea. --Lavender If you don't like vanilla, try some chocolate. From: Tracey de Morsella Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 4:05 AM To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Subject: [scifinoir2] Coming: Computer-Generated Actors 1 January 2009 1:30 AM, PST Silicon Valley is on the verge of producing sophisticated software that will allow motion picture companies to create actors on a computer who are visually indistinguishable from real people, San Jose's Mercury News reported today (Thursday). In the words of the newspaper, which closely follows the sofware industry, when software engineers finally achieve what it calls "the holy grail of animation," stars would be able to "keep playing iconic roles even as they aged past the point of believability like Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft or Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter." Rick Bergman, general manager of AMD's graphics products group, told the Mercury News that his company "is getting real close" to producing computer-generated actors that will look identical to real human beings. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0639199/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQdwk8Yntds
