We Should Label Synthetic Media Before We're Forced To

The Sony takedown and Disney cease-and-desist this week are the early version of a rule we'll all have to follow: label synthetic media or someone makes you.

I label every voice, image, and video my tools generate as synthetic, even the internal ones. It's a habit, not a legal strategy yet, but habits survive when rules arrive.

The objection is always 'it slows me down.' It doesn't. A line of text in a caption is free. What's expensive is the lawsuit that assumes your output was real.

Creators who build trust now — 'this voice is synthetic, here's why' — will outlast the ones who hope nobody notices.

Regulation is coming from the people whose IP got used. The cheapest compliance is the kind you start before it's required.