CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bank of America is using an artificial voice on all of its audio-enabled ATMs after its effort to use a woman's voice on the machines was silenced by her demand for royalties, according to a Reuters report.
The bank filed a complaint in federal court in San Francisco on June 17 seeking to recover the cost of replacing the woman's voice on the ATMs. Two days later, the bank and the woman, Christie Smith, also known as Christie Tanner, resolved the matter out of court, BofA said after the dispute came to light last week.
The bank currently has about 500 talking ATMs in California and Florida and has announced plans to install more than 7,000 by 2005, including more than 3,000 by the end of 2002.
The problem started when Smith told the company she believed the voice recording she made for the talking ATMs was protected by copyright. According to the bank's court complaint, she demanded a large lump-sum royalty payment and threatened to seek an injunction prohibiting Bank of America from using her voice.
Both legal experts and members of the advocacy community expressed surprise at the case.
"We've had people talking and reading for books on tapes for years. I've never heard of anything like this. Most people are happy to do this because they know how much help this is to blind people,' said Catherine Skivers, president of the California Council of the Blind, which has taken an active role in lobbying for audio-enabled ATMs.
"My sense is that you can't copyright sounds. You may have the copyright to the material being read, but you can't copyright a voice,' said Leonard Rubin, a copyright expert in Chicago.
