YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyWorkers & JobsCivil LibertiesCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityYou would get a federal right over AI copies of your voice and face — posting one without permission could cost $5,000.
Your Money
A person who shares a digital replica without permission would owe at least $5,000 for each video, image, or recording. Courts could award more if the real losses or the profits were higher.
Courts would have to award legal fees to a person who wins one of these cases. A defendant who wins gets fees back only if the judge finds the case was not brought in good faith.
Workers & Jobs
An adult could not sign away rights to their voice or face for more than 10 years at a time. The deal would have to be in writing and spell out how the copy may be used.
A likeness deal signed by someone under 18 would need court approval under state law. It could run no longer than 5 years, and it would end when the young person turns 18.
Where a union contract already covers digital copies, the time limits and writing rules would not apply. Unions that bargain for actors and musicians would set those terms instead.
Civil Liberties
You would decide who may use an AI copy of your voice or looks. You could not sell the right outright while you are alive, only license it.
Replicas used in news, sports, documentaries, criticism, scholarship, or comedy would not break this law. Brief or minor uses would be covered too.
Those free-speech exceptions would never apply to a replica showing sexual conduct. Someone who posts one could not claim it was satire or reporting.
A rights holder could ask a court clerk for a subpoena forcing a website to hand over a user's identity. No judge would have to review the request first.
There would be no simple form for challenging a takedown. You would have to file a federal lawsuit within 14 days, and the service could still choose not to restore your post.
Once a notice names a fake, sites built around user uploads would also have to block later copies that match its digital fingerprint. They would also have to cut off users who break the rules again and again.
State laws already on the books as of January 2, 2025 would still work. States could still pass new laws about sexual or election fakes, but not broader likeness laws.
Corporate Benefits
A service that registers a contact agent and takes fakes down quickly would be protected from these lawsuits. One that ignores notices could owe up to $750,000 for a single work.
A label holding an exclusive contract for a singer's services could bring the case itself. The artist would not have to be the one who sues.
Selling a product built mainly to make copies of a specific person would become grounds for a lawsuit. Damages would start at $25,000 per product for a company.
Transparency & Accountability
Someone who knowingly claims a real video is a fake would owe the person who posted it. Skipping a good-faith review would count as a knowing false claim.
Sites that want the legal shield would have to notify both the person who complained and the user who uploaded the material.
More about this bill
If someone makes a realistic AI copy of your voice or face, you could sue. You would hold a new federal property right over digital replicas of yourself. It would last your whole life. After you die, your heirs could hold it for up to 70 years. Deals letting others use your likeness would have to be in writing. They could not run more than 10 years. For anyone under 18, the limit is 5 years. A judge would also have to approve that deal. Posting a fake of someone without permission could cost you $5,000 for each work. Lose the case, and you would pay the other side's lawyer too. News, sports, documentaries, criticism, satire, and parody would stay allowed. Saying "this is AI" would not protect you. Sexually explicit fakes would get none of those protections. Websites and apps would face a takedown system much like the one for copyright. After a valid notice, they would have to pull the fake down fast. They would also have to block later copies that match it. If your post comes down, the service would have to tell you. To get it back, you would have to sue within 14 days. A false takedown notice could cost the sender $25,000. Most new state laws on digital fakes would give way to this one. The rules would start 180 days after the bill becomes law.
Congressional Summary
Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2025 or the NO FAKES Act of 2025 This bill creates a federal intellectual property right to protect individuals from unauthorized digital replicas (e.g., digital content made using generative artificial intelligence) of their voice and visual likeness. Specifically, the bill gives each individual or right holder the right to authorize the use of the individual's voice or visual likeness (1) in a digital replica, or (2) for a product or service requiring authorization to avoid liability under the bill. This property right is not assignable during the individual’s lifetime but is licensable and does not expire upon the death of the individual. Generally, any individual or entity that engages in specified prohibited activities (e.g., distributing a digital replica without authorization) shall be liable in a civil action and subject to related penalties. The bill exempts specified uses from liability, such as categories of conduct likely to involve protected speech under the First Amendment (e.g., news reporting, sports broadcasts, and satire). The bill establishes a notice-and-takedown process for unauthorized digital replicas. The bill establishes penalties related to false or deceptive notice. The bill expressly preempts state laws related to digital replicas except for causes of action under state statutes or common law in existence as of January 2, 2025.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-04-09
- Date Added
- 2026-07-23
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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