Voicebank Thieves

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Ash Ketchum
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I mean not all thieves are smart, but think of the ones who will inspect the bank and remove anything so the creator has proof that they stol their bank
What I do just in case my banks get stolen (Which will never happen lol) I put an image file and change the type of it (jpg,png,gif etc etc)
and call it something like "a2.frq" etc etc and I can always revert the frq to jpg and prove them that their guilty
so you convert an image file to an frq or just label it as such? do you put it anywhere special?
 

LilyoftheValley

Your local flower girl
Defender of Defoko
Reading through this thread makes me not want to release the voicebanks I'm working on right now...
I'll still probably release the banks anyways, but still.
Yeah, it's terrifying >.> I'm reading through this and really hoping it doesn't happen to me, not that I think my bank is a special snowflake or anything. But it's scary to think someone could steal your work.
 
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Flavio Riama

Teto's Territory
It never happened to me but it's terrifying to imagine you have a lot of effort to make a good voicebank and out of the blue someone says they made the voicebank.
 

KNΞMΛTCS

Just an UtaForum user
Defender of Defoko
This is why I think that lack of DRM is one of the biggest downfalls of UTAU. Having a key system where each key only works once could deter most casual thieves. Granted people can always crack these type of systems, but it would stop a lot of potential issues like this.

Even just with UTAU, you could do something like mentioned above (putting an image into a .frq file) but more elaborate.

Also, PLEASE, make real licence agreements with your voicebanks. A nice, legal-looking licence which you have to agree to (with a button) before downloading should be normal. Just by doing that, you give yourself a lot more fighting power, legal or otherwise, against a thief. Bonus if you apply the aforementioned watermarking and mention this in your agreement - its presence could fend away potential thieves.
 

수연 <Suyeon>

Your friendly neighborhood koreaboo trash
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
While there's no need to be so paranoid as to never release one's bank, it is true that you need to employ some method of creativity to identify a stolen bank as yours (unless your voice is just that unique that anyone could recognize it). That's simply the risk one must have in the back of their mind in a community that thrives on making things affordable as in linux for other people.

Plagiarism/thievery isn't that common and only the most determinant of offenders will attempt to do something twice. 9/10 the only way for someone to completely get away with it is to 1. never display their ill-gotten goods on the internet (most people are too... unintelligent to not do this), and 2. pick the most generic/nondescript voice with horrible mic quality, art, and accent they can find - guaranteeing that it will be glanced over and not be thought of twice. But ofc, no one will actually go for those kinds of banks - they'll be stupid and go for a bank who's popularity shot up seemingly overnight, who has a recognizable sound. Therefore, they'll eventually be caught.
 

FelineWasteland

Feral Catboy
Defender of Defoko
To my knowledge, theft has never happened to me with my UTAU (though it has with my art, but that's a different story). When it comes to proving ownership, I think perhaps a solution would be to record a video of yourself voicing the UTAU, then putting the new samples into the software with a direct comparison to the stolen bank, or simply demanding of the thief proof that they did create it.

Most thieves are younger teens (11 - 14), some of which genuinely didn't realize they were doing something wrong, and about half of them will fess up upon confrontation. The other half will be incredibly stubborn, though, and it takes a bit of convincing for them to take down the content. Though, in my experience, attacking a thief tends to put them on the defense and makes the unwilling to comply; it's better to just talk to them civilly in private first, then taking matters public if that doesn't work out.

For me, I'm not really worried about voicebank thieves because my UTAU is not particularly popular in the first place, and also I feel I have a pretty unique voice that I can recognize easily.
 

Animé Fan

Head of the Shonen Academy
Defender of Defoko
To my knowledge, theft has never happened to me with my UTAU (though it has with my art, but that's a different story). When it comes to proving ownership, I think perhaps a solution would be to record a video of yourself voicing the UTAU, then putting the new samples into the software with a direct comparison to the stolen bank, or simply demanding of the thief proof that they did create it.

Most thieves are younger teens (11 - 14), some of which genuinely didn't realize they were doing something wrong, and about half of them will fess up upon confrontation. The other half will be incredibly stubborn, though, and it takes a bit of convincing for them to take down the content. Though, in my experience, attacking a thief tends to put them on the defense and makes the unwilling to comply; it's better to just talk to them civilly in private first, then taking matters public if that doesn't work out.

For me, I'm not really worried about voicebank thieves because my UTAU is not particularly popular in the first place, and also I feel I have a pretty unique voice that I can recognize easily.
My UTAU aren't popular themselves (probably because they're young boys and/or shotas), yet I've encountered UTAU thieves twice already. Because of that, I should still be on the lookout, same goes for other users, popular or not.
 

moonst4r

Witch of the Night
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Oh my, I agree in that there's no need to be paranoid about having your voicebanks stolen. There's also no need to take drastic measures like recording yourself making the voicebank. Even if they do steal, there's not much they can do to the voicebank besides pitching it. The timbre and pronunciation/accent will stay the same regardless and you can prove your UTAU and the stolen bank are the same without going through all this work.

That being said, voicebank theft is rare and the thieves will eventually be caught.
 

FelineWasteland

Feral Catboy
Defender of Defoko
Oh my, I agree in that there's no need to be paranoid about having your voicebanks stolen. There's also no need to take drastic measures like recording yourself making the voicebank. Even if they do steal, there's not much they can do to the voicebank besides pitching it. The timbre and pronunciation/accent will stay the same regardless and you can prove your UTAU and the stolen bank are the same without going through all this work.

That being said, voicebank theft is rare and the thieves will eventually be caught.
I suggested the recording thing in the rare event that people would not believe that you are the creator; overall, I do agree that theft is fairly uncommon and usually easy to resolve without much of a spectacle, so it's not something people should be freaking out over.
 

DvoraKing

Teto's Territory
No, I just leave it there
In my Mizuki Kisaragi Whisper bank
I converted an image of her into a frq and name it "breath2.frq" and bam, just there,


If you're using unique security measures like that, it probably isn't wise to publicly disclose your own methods. Also, it's probably not wise to disclose the voice banks in particular in which you used these methods...
 

❤️PuririnLuka❤️

Arsloids Guardian
Defender of Defoko
If you're using unique security measures like that, it probably isn't wise to publicly disclose your own methods. Also, it's probably not wise to disclose the voice banks in particular in which you used these methods...
Yeah kinda figure that out, but don't worry I have a new mothod already lol
 

kimchi-tan

Your local Mikotard
Global Mod
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
I forgot to mention this, but the one who asked to be friends now has their account deleted since their comment asking to be friends is now gone and clicking on their username (from when I replied to them) leads to a 404 error :/
 

Animé Fan

Head of the Shonen Academy
Defender of Defoko
I forgot to mention this, but the one who asked to be friends now has their account deleted since their comment asking to be friends is now gone and clicking on their username (from when I replied to them) leads to a 404 error :/
How strange. Perhaps somebody knew about their actions or some other thing?
 
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Maybe2Morrow

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
Well, Now I have released 2 UTAUs and sadly an actually japanese person stole Jackerline what they didn't realize was the hidden signature on the art xD Yes There is a hidden, and also they didn't have the full design which include an orange headset with stars on the ears - a little other hidden mark of mine since all my UTAUs own such a headset but only Nicolai (not released yet) and STJERNE (not released yet) are the only ones to wear them casually. That said

The thieve got taken - and honestly not even by me - Somebody was like: You converted a Vocaloid to an UTAU and I sat like - Weeeeeeeelll that is also a way to do it O.o'
Honestly I get so many comments with people be like: "Oh have SPIKE! grown up?" "Is that Len?" "Why do I hear Oliver and Fukase" etc etc. Apparently many like to think my voice sound like those four xD I'm sorry but it is my voice. Another way to regornize my VB is that I'm also a Youtaite/utaite meaning my normal singing voice (Sounding like Jackerline actually?) sounds very much alike Jackerline and we all know that it actually is illegal to make a UTAU on someone else's voice without permission.

Now I mostly post Jackerline here and on Vocaloid Amino.
As for Ao Capella am I not really scared since she is filled with annoying bip sounds xD Who wants to steal an utau there says bip all the time xD
 
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Kuku Klock

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
Oh I've had this happen recently actually. Someone tried to steal Kurushimi by pitching him up and putting a flag on him. Funny thing is, since I have voiced over 100 voicebanks an have 20 main voices, It was easy to tell the voicebank was mine. Since Kurushimi pitched and flagged sounds either like Kurayami or Ren. When I got into their butt about it, they denied it several times until basically everyone that used Kurushimi told them off. Even funnier, they made his design, basically Kurushimi, just a different hairstyle. *Snorts* But occasionally myself, I do get "You sampled Meiko or Kai Kai for Kurayami" or " You sampled Gakupo for Kurushimi" Which isn't the case, so i literally have a sample of said Vocaloids and my voice so that i can disprove that.
 

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