About this episode

The episode discusses how celebrities like Taylor Swift are legally combating AI deepfakes and the implications for copyright and trademark law.

When Taylor Swift launched her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, in October 2025, she recorded two short clips to promote it. One for Amazon Music began with “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift”. Another, for Spotify with “Hey, it’s Taylor”. These two phrases may sound a little mundane, but they’re now at the frontline of a legal fightback by celebrities like Swift against AI deepfakes. In April, Swift’s intellectual property company, TAS Right Management, applied to the US Patent and Trademark office to trademark them as registered sound marks, along with a photo of her, from her recent Eras tour. In this episode, we speak to intellectual property expert Graeme Austin , a professor of law at the University of Melbourne and chair of private law at Victoria University of Wellington to understand why Swift took this route, and the different ways celebrities are trying to protect themselves against AI deepfakes. And if you’re not a celebrity with a large legal team, what can you do? This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the f ull credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily…

People in this episode

Hosts: Gemma Ware, Mend Mariwany

Guest: Graeme Austin

Topics covered

• AI deepfakes
• intellectual property
• celebrity rights
• trademark
• copyright
• legal battles

Keywords

• Taylor Swift
• AI deepfakes
• intellectual property
• trademark
• copyright
• legal rights
• celebrity protection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: TAS Right Management, University of Melbourne, Victoria University of Wellington

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