Tag: Right of Publicity
House Introduces Its Companion Version of NO FAKES Act
The House has introduced its own version of the NO FAKES Act. Apparently, at least some in the House are shifting gears from the earlier No AI FRAUD Act given the broader support for the revised version of the Senate's NO FAKES Act. This suggests some increased momentum to move forward with something along the...
Copyright Office Calls for Congressional Action on Digital Replicas
Late this summer, the U.S. Copyright Office released the first of its planned reports on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence. This one, designated as Part 1, addresses “Digital Replicas”. It was notably released the same day that members of the Senate introduced a bipartisan digital replica bill. The Report generally supports a federal digital replica law...
NO FAKES Act Introduced in Senate
On July 31st, right before the summer recess, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the NO FAKES Act, which has been substantially revised and improved from the previously circulated discussion draft. The bill seeks to address concerns over the use of unauthorized digital replicas of real people in the wake of improved and widely available...
Copyright Office Releases Report on Digital Replicas
The U.S. Copyright Office released its first report addressing Copyright and Artificial Intelligence titled "Part I: Digital Replicas." Following Congress' lead, the Copyright Office's first analysis of the issues raised by AI focuses on digital replicas, not copyright law. The report is accessible at this link. I will provide a more in-depth analysis of the...
Senate Formally Introduces Digital Replica Bill
After floating a discussion draft last year, a significantly revised and improved version of the legislation has been introduced in the Senate. The bill is a bipartisan effort to address AI-generated digital replicas at the federal level and is co-sponsored by Senators Koons, Blackburn, Klobuchar, and Tillis. The bill remains titled the NO FAKES Act...
Senate Holds Hearing on Ways to Improve Draft Digital Replica Bill
Yesterday, April 30, 2024, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s held a hearing on “The NO FAKES Act: Protecting Americans from Unauthorized Digital Replicas.” This was a follow-up to a prior Senate subcommittee hearing on AI which nominally focused on copyright law, but largely raised the issue of personality rights. The Senate...
California Considers a Digital Replica Law for the Dead
Joining the frenzy of states trying to address concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) and particularly concerns expressed by the recording industry, Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan introduced a right of publicity bill in the California legislature, AB 1836, that would add a digital replica provision to California's postmortem right of publicity statute, Cal. Civ. Code §...
Tennessee Governor Signs ELVIS Act, Greatly Expanding State’s Publicity Statute
Yesterday, Governor Bill Lee signed into law the ELVIS Act which replaces the prior right of publicity statute in Tennessee. It goes into effect on July 1st. I analyzed the new law in detail earlier this week. The law uncontroversially adds voice to the enumerated protections but also greatly expands the scope of liability and...
Tennessee Legislature Sends Right of Publicity Bill to Governor’s Desk
Tennessee’s right of publicity law has long been driven by the ghost of Elvis, and is now likely to replace its current statute with the almost inevitable passage of the appropriately titled ELVIS Act (the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act of 2024) (HB 2091/SB 2096). Last week the bill was sent to the...
House Subcommittee Sends Follow-Up Questions After AI Hearing
After the February 2nd House hearing about AI and how best to address unauthorized use of a person's voice and likeness at the federal level, two members of the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet sent me (Prof. Rothman) additional written questions to answer for the record. Representative Issa's questions focused on...