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flkelfe
Classic shovel mentality.

> Request licensing for ...

Translation: "We'll be your middle man..."

I find it hard to believe they already have the 'Ok' from Maya Angelou. Maybe I'm wrong.

a2dam
An enormous bummer of a fact is that Majel Barrett, who was the voice of the computer on Star Trek (along with a number of other roles), did phonetic voice recordings specifically to reproduce her voice, yet nobody has used those recordings to do so. I'd love to see her on this list.
KetoManx64
There's plenty of open source tools out there that you can use to do this. Why wait for someone else to make something that you're passionate about?
rocmcd
Maybe I'm getting old, but, I have to say, seeing stuff like "Alan Turing™" (a legend and titan of computing history, followed by a ™) really bums me out. I don't believe for one second that any of the deceased people listed here would want their likeness emulated in such a hollow, mechanical, and inhuman way for all of eternity.
serf
absolutely. I felt total disgust. 'Lana Turner (tm)' takes all of the humanity out of the person and reduces them down to an IP and it's gross.
vagab0nd
> I don't believe for one second that any of the deceased people listed here would want their likeness emulated in such a hollow, mechanical, and inhuman way for all of eternity.

Would the mummy in the Egyptian exhibition want their lifeless body shown to the public for all of eternity? Isn't this how the world always works: once you are dead, nobody really cares about you except maybe your trust and immediate descendants.

andrewstuart
It makes sense to allow people to license their own voice on a per project basis.

Voices of dead actors? Feels wrong.

rasse
I'd personally want to hear new voices, not more of the same. I wonder if products like this take away from the opportunity for new talent to arise.
mentos
Won’t this just lead to these iconic voices becoming a commodity and being played everywhere and losing their value?
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theothertimcook
These are not all iconic voices, people definitely but what about:

Bootsy Collins, Snoop Dogg, Gilbert Gottfried , Arnie, Christopher Walken, Matt Berry....

Imagine the cast of Futurama voice acting the Bhagavad-Gita, or Vincent price reading twilight, this is the cutting edge shit the world needs.

DiabloD3
This is kind of disgusting. I hope they're pushed out of business for this gross violation of the dead. The families and estates of the dead should also be ashamed for trying to ride that corpse for a few more dollars.

I'm kinda weirded out that there are sibling comments that think this is okay.

simian1983
I’ll bet these are licensing deals with the families and estates of the actors. These synthetic voices will provide ongoing income, long after the actors are gone.