BofA files complaint against woman who provided voice of "talking" ATMs

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bank of America has replaced the woman who provided the voice for its new "talking" ATMs with so-called "synthetic voice recordings" because she demanded undeserved royalties and threatened to slap the bank with a lawsuit, according to court documents.

The bank filed a complaint in federal court in San Francisco, seeking to recover the cost of using a replacement recording in the ATMs, which improve access to banking for visually impaired customers.

In early October, Bank of America announced ambitious plans to install more than 7,000 talking ATMs across the U.S. More than 3,000 are planned by the end of 2002, with the remainder installed by the end of 2005. Currently, the bank has 500 machines installed in Florida and California.

Bank of America hopes to prove that Christie Smith, also known as Christie Tanner, does not hold a copyright interest in the ATM recordings she made for the bank. If she does, Bank of America maintains it did not infringe the copyright.

Bank of America wrote a script and then hired Premiere Communications Inc. to make the recordings, according to its complaint. Premiere subsequently hired Smith to read the script.

According to the complaint, Smith "has advised [Bank of America] that the voice recording she previously furnished for use in its talking ATMs is protected by a valid copyright" and "has demanded exorbitant lump-sum royalties and has threatened to seek injunctive relief prohibiting [Bank of America] from continuing to use her voice recordings."

In addition, Bank of America claims Smith's lawyer contacted the California Council of the Blind and said that if her demands are not met she will seek an injunction to bar further use of [the bank's] talking ATMs thus leaving the visually impaired in California without access to ATM machines."