Call Them Deepfakes Or Digital Replicas, The Copyright Office Wants To Get Tough On Them
Anyone who’s ever been deepfaked knows how traumatizing it can be, especially if it was done for a nefarious reason. It’s even worse for artists because a replicated voice or video may be making money for someone else off of the artist’s name, image and likeness. The U.S. Copyright office wants to get touch on “digital replicas” though, and it’s trying to enlist Congress to pass a law that would give it the authority to act.
The Copyright Office refers to AI-generated digital replicas as “a video, image, or audio recording that has been digitally created or manipulated to realistically but falsely depict an individual”. In other words, unauthorized deepfake video and voice clones. The Office feels that digital replica is a better term than deepfake, as deepfake has sometimes been used in the context of legitimate productions.
Now it’s urging Congress to pass a law that provides the public with protection and gives the office the power to act against digital replica copyright claims. This has actually started on a State level with recent changes to publicity rights in Louisiana and New York, and the recently passed ELVIS Act in Tennessee gives artists much more control over how their voice may be used. That said, the Copyright Office has found that most of these changes still provide insufficient protection, so it’s asking for a law with more teeth.
And Congress has responded with the No AI FRAUD Act in the House Of Representatives and the NO FAKES Act in the Senate. The interesting part about the NO FAKES Act is that it would extend beyond a person’s life-time for up to 70 years, the right would not be assignable, and licensing deals would be limited to ten years.
Every artist is subject to a digital replica used to siphon off royalties, and for some, it’s even happening already. That’s why the time is right for a new law that finally provides some protection. Congress has been dragging its feet on new copyright law that covers our current digital world for at least a decade. Passing something like the NO FAKES Act would be a good first step towards copyright protection for the current digital age.
