Culture
Japan arrests man who de-pixelated porn using deepfake tech
Japanese authorities cited violations of both copyright and obscenity laws.
A Japanese man who made over $96,000 using deepfake technology to un-blur censored porn was arrested earlier this week by authorities in the country on the grounds of breaking both copyright and obscenity laws. According to local police, the individual learned to use a deep-learning video-clarifying tool, TecoGAN, to bypass pixelation in over 2,500 video files. According to the Japanese news outlet, The Mainichi, this is the first arrest of this kind within the country.
The man in question has allegedly already admitted to these charges, but potentially faces more investigations for “further crimes.” In other international, albeit legal, deepfake news: Bruce Willis is totally down with licensing his likeness for Russian cell phones... so there’s that.
Add it to the list of problems — The latest deepfake news from Japan can be tossed onto the ever-increasing pile of “problematic uses” for the uncanny technology. Despite the occasional “fun and nice” example out there, by and large, deepfaking has been a never-ending torrent of ethical abysses, security violations, and dangerous examples of misinformation.
Regardless of one’s opinions on obscenity laws and porn regulation, it’s pretty safe to say at this point that the worlds of deepfake technology and porn should stay as far apart from each other as possible.
