Zihang Lan and Yichen Luo (Wuhan University) have posted Ghost Performers in Machine Simulacra: Neighbouring Rights Protection of Digital Twins on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article asks what law should protect when artificial-intelligence-driven digital twins function as machine simulacra. Digital twins are not static models. They are live simulations that interpret, predict, and optimize physical systems. Because their value lies in ongoing performance rather than a fixed work, copyright, patent, and trade secret law fit them poorly. The article argues for a new sui generis neighbouring right centred on performance. To address the artificial-intelligence system’s lack of legal personality, it distinguishes that system as the Factual Performer and the human or corporate controller as the Performance Principal. Using Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra, the article explains how protection can follow the twin from faithful replica to hyperreal model without producing legal hyperreality. Rights remain anchored in human control and responsibility rather than in the simulacrum as a work.
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