Copyright Office Part 1 Digital Replicas 2024

Enacted 2024-07-31 | Official source

Summary

Recommends Congress establish a federal right to protect individuals from unauthorized digital replicas, make the right licensable but not assignable with civil remedies, apply secondary liability with conditioned safe harbor for OSPs, include First Amendment accommodations, avoid full preemption of state publicity rights, and rely on the Copyright Office as a resource for Congress and other branches in considering these recommendations and future developments

Key facts

🏛️ This document has been enacted by the Copyright Office of the U.S. Library of Congress. For authoritative text and metadata, visit the official source.

🎯 This document primarily applies to the government, rather than the private sector.

📜 This document's name is Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 1: Digital Replicas July 2024. AGORA also tracks this document under the name Copyright Office Part 1 Digital Replicas 2024.

Themes AI risks, applications, governance strategies, and other themes addressed in AGORA documents.

Risk factors (2)

Harms (2)

Governance strategies (3)

Incentives for compliance (2)

AI application areas (1)

Broadcasting and media production

Full text

This is an unofficial copy. The document has been archived and reformatted in plaintext for AGORA. Footnotes, tables, and similar material may be omitted. For the official text, visit the original source.

[removed all parts of the report except the conclusion, which contained actionable recommendations]

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. Traditional rules of secondary liability should apply, but with an appropriately conditioned safe harbor for OSPs. The law should contain explicit First Amendment accommodations. Finally, in recognition of well-developed state rights of publicity, we recommend against full preemption of state laws.

The Office remains available as a resource to Congress, the courts, and the executive branch in considering the recommendations in this Report and future developments.