Actor Sun Honglei wins first-of-its-kind lawsuit over voice rights

A court in Southwest China has ordered two gaming companies to apologize and pay compensation to Chinese actor Sun Honglei for using his voice in a game without his permission.

The Chengdu Internet Tribunal ruled on Friday that the companies, Chengdu Shuishenfei Technology Co and Beijing Shuishenfei Technology Co, must apologize to Sun and pay him 30,000 yuan ($4,110).

Sun had sued the companies in September, alleging that they used his voice from the classic TV series Vanquish in their game Watermelon Vendor Versus Melon Buyer without his authorization. Sun played a villain in the TV series.

Sun argued that the use of his voice in the game smeared his image and violated his personality rights. He had sought 500,000 yuan in compensation.

The court ruled that the companies did violate Sun's right on his voice, but it did not find that the game had smeared Sun's image. The court said that the image of the character in the game was referred to the character in the TV series, and that the public did not take the image presented in the game as Sun's image in real life.

The case was the first of its kind in China involving a dispute over voice rights of dialogue in film and television dramas.