US Copyright Office recommends new right to protect against ‘deepfakes’
August 2, 2024
On 31 July, the US Copyright Office released a report that recommends a new right to protect against ‘digital replicas’ – the use of digital technology to realistically replicate an individual’s voice or appearance.
You can see the report here.
The report says:
The Copyright Office agrees with the numerous commenters that have asserted an urgent need for new protection at the federal level. The widespread availability of generative AI tools that make it easy to create digital replicas of individuals’ images and voices has highlighted gaps in existing laws and raised concerns about the harms that can be inflicted by unauthorized uses.
We recommend that Congress establish a federal right that protects all individuals during their lifetimes from the knowing distribution of unauthorized digital replicas. The right should be licensable, subject to guardrails, but not assignable, with effective remedies including monetary damages and injunctive relief.
The Copyright Office also considered, but rejected, new laws for the protection of ‘artistic style’. It said:
there are several sources of protection under existing laws that may be effective against unfair or deceptive copying of artistic style. Given these resources, as well as the policy reasons not to extend property-like rights to style in itself, the Office does not recommend including style as protected subject matter under a federal digital replica law at this time. If existing protections prove inadequate, this conclusion may be revisited.
This is the first in a series of reports that the Copyright Office will produce from its inquiry into copyright and artificial intelligence, commenced in 2023.
Subsequent reports will deal with other issues such as:
- the copyrightability of works created using generative AI
- training of AI models on copyrighted works
- licensing considerations
- allocation of any potential liability