Sponsors (11)
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Maria Elvira Salazar · Last progress April 9, 2025
The bill strengthens individuals' property and enforcement rights over digital replicas (including protections for minors) but increases platform costs and liability, risks over-broad takedowns and litigation, preempts state protections, and may chill some legitimate technology development.
Everyone whose voice or visual likeness is used (living or deceased) gains a clear, enforceable property right to control commercial uses in digital replicas.
Creators and rights-holders (e.g., artists, small studios) can seek statutory remedies — damages, injunctions, and attorneys' fees — against unauthorized commercial uses of digital replicas.
Users, platforms, and consumers gain clearer notice-and-takedown procedures with a designated-agent system to remove unauthorized digital replicas more efficiently.
Online platforms and service providers must absorb new compliance costs and face increased liability and moderation burdens when handling notices about digital replicas.
Users (including students and everyday posters) risk losing lawful content through over-broad takedowns or false notices, and notifiers face high statutory penalties for misrepresentations.
The bill broadly preempts state laws governing expressive works, which could eliminate existing state-specific protections and remedies that some individuals now rely on.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a "digital replication right" letting individuals and right holders control use of computer-generated replicas of a person's voice or visual likeness and defines related technical/legal terms.
Creates a new legal right that lets people and their rights holders control whether a person’s voice or visual likeness can be used as a computer-generated “digital replica.” The bill defines key technical and legal terms — like “digital replica,” “digital fingerprint,” “interactive computer service,” “right holder,” and “user uploaded material” — and sets out who counts as an individual or a right holder for purposes of that right. The text also clarifies some exclusions (for example, authorized sampling, remixing, mastering, and certain end-user activities) and explicitly treats institutions that operate multi-user online services (including libraries and educational institutions) as covered interactive computer services. The provided text does not specify funding, penalties, or an effective date.