This case arises from Coca-Cola's pirating Johnny Cash's voice in a nationwide advertising campaign to enrich itself without asking for permission or providing any compensation to the humble man and artist who created the goodwill from which Coca-Cola now profits, the complaint said. Stealing the voice of an artist is theft. It is theft of his integrity, identity and humanity, said Tim Warnock, a lawyer for the Cash estate.
The use of digital re-creations of dead celebrities isn't exactly a new issue-back in the '90s, we were collectively wrestling with John Lennon chatting to Forrest Gump and Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum. Back then, though, that kind of footage required painstaking digital editing and technology only easily accessible to major video production houses. Now, more convincing footage of deceased public figures can be generated by any Sora 2 user in minutes for just a few bucks.