The NO FAKES Act - short for the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act - was formally introduced in the US Senate on July 31, 2024, as S.4875, by a bipartisan group: Chris Coons, Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar, and Thom Tillis. A companion bill was introduced in the House. It responded directly to the explosion of AI tools that can clone a person’s voice or fabricate their likeness, and to the Copyright Office’s recommendation that Congress create a federal protection.
The bill would establish a federal property-like right in each individual’s voice and visual likeness, allowing a person (or their licensee) to control AI-generated “digital replicas” of themselves. Unlike the existing patchwork of state right-of-publicity laws, the right would apply nationwide and to all individuals, not just celebrities. It would survive a person’s death and last up to 70 years afterward, subject to renewal conditions, and it would let rightsholders sue those who create or distribute unauthorized replicas. The bill includes carve-outs intended to protect First Amendment activities such as news, commentary, parody, and biography. The legislation drew support from the recording industry, actors’ unions, and major studios, while digital-rights groups raised concerns about overbreadth and its effect on free expression.
Why business readers should care: if enacted, NO FAKES would create direct federal liability for using AI to imitate a real person’s voice or appearance without consent. Marketers, media companies, and any business deploying synthetic voices or avatars would need clear licensing chains for the identities they reproduce.