{"id":309234,"date":"2026-03-02T10:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309234\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:10:07","slug":"ai-slop-can-players-and-football-clubs-do-anything-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/309234\/","title":{"rendered":"AI slop: Can players and football clubs do anything about it?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Once again, it did not happen but looks so realistic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And Cowan said it was difficult for there to be any recourse when content is presented &#8220;in a non-contentious manner&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Unless a person has suffered commercial or reputational damage, options are limited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s always been quite challenging for an individual to enforce IP rights,&#8221; Cowan said. &#8220;If it is a deepfake that is showing them in a compromising position, let&#8217;s say, that&#8217;s different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Data (Use and Access) Act came into force last month, making it a criminal offence to create, share or request a sexually explicit deepfake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But then you have AI-generated videos such as Celtic&#8217;s Luke McCowan punching an assistant referee. Could it damage his reputation, or is it just not believeable? <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A more pressing concern for players might be &#8216;passing off&#8217;. This is where someone unfairly associates their own products or services with the reputation and goodwill of an established brand or business &#8211; or player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is intended to mislead consumers into believing they connected to it &#8211; to the detriment of the established brand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cowan explained that in December 2024, as part of an AI-related consultation, the UK government said it was considering &#8220;introducing some kind of personality right&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That would give a player more scope to take action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Clubs, for their part, have a few more options open to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Social media accounts putting players in the shirts of their new team &#8211; or any team &#8211; is nothing new.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But what if a club wanted to take issue?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Where you&#8217;ve got, for example, the Man City kit they could look at other IP rights,&#8221; Cowan said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Have they infringed the trademark in their crest? Or design rights in their shirt? For that kind of image, that&#8217;s what a club or an individual would likely be looking at.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">BBC Sport understands City believe fans know official channels remain the only places to go for any genuine news, images or videos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But as the lines blur further, will clubs keep that stance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once again, it did not happen but looks so realistic. And Cowan said it was difficult for there&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-309234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}