Virtual YouTubers’ Portrait Rights

Users’ Rights to Their Own Portraits as CG Avatars

Abstract

In recent years, entertainers who are called “Virtual YouTuber (VTuber)” have enjoyed popularity especially among young people. They post videos or stream live on the Internet appearing as CG avatars not living bodies. In this paper, the author examines the legal grounds of VTubers’ rights to their own portraits expressed as CG avatars. The author surveys the legal precedents and theories of portrait rights up to now and examines the necessity and possibility of expanding the rights both in terms of object and content. First, I discuss what a ‘portrait’ is and whether VTubers’ CG avatars can be regarded as portraits of the person behind the avatar. Second, I discuss what a ‘portrait right’ is and whether it could include the rights of excluding the unauthorized uses of CG avatars and of maintaining the use of one’s own avatar.