YourVoice.Now Summary
Civil LibertiesYour MoneyWorkers & JobsCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityLets you sue over realistic AI copies of your voice or face — damages start at $5,000 per fake.
Civil Liberties
The bill creates a property right in your voice and visual likeness. You could sue anyone who shares a realistic AI version of you that you did not approve.
Your likeness right would not end when you die. Heirs keep it for 10 years, then must renew every 5 years by showing real use, with a hard stop at 70 years.
The free-speech carve-outs in the bill do not cover sexually explicit fakes. News, satire, and documentary uses get no protection when the clip is explicit.
A rights holder files a takedown notice and a sworn statement with a court clerk. The clerk then orders the website to hand over your identity, with no judge reviewing it.
To challenge a removal, you must sign in front of a notary and give your address and phone number to the person who reported you. The site waits at least 14 days before putting the post back.
The federal right would replace state claims about AI replicas in creative works. State laws already on the books by January 2, 2025 still apply, as do state laws on sexual or election fakes.
Your Money
You are only on the hook if you knew, or looked away from knowing, that the clip was an unapproved copy. If you lose, the court must also make you pay the other side's lawyer.
Workers & Jobs
If a union contract covers digital replicas, the time limits do not apply. The terms the union bargained control instead.
A living person cannot sign away rights to their AI likeness for more than 10 years at a time. The deal must be in writing and spell out the planned uses.
Deals covering someone under 18 last no more than 5 years and end when they turn 18. A court must approve the deal first.
Corporate Benefits
A site that registers a takedown contact, cuts off repeat violators, and pulls flagged clips fast is not liable. Sites get 90 days after the law starts to register.
A company holding an exclusive personal services deal with a recording artist could bring the lawsuit itself. The artist does not have to be the one to sue.
The bill counts as an intellectual property law. That removes the broad shield websites normally have for what their users post.
Selling a tool built mainly to copy a named person without consent creates liability. General-purpose AI tools that can do many things are not covered.
Once a user-upload site or music service handles a valid notice, it must stop later copies that match the same digital file. Other sites face no such duty.
Transparency & Accountability
The same $25,000 applies to a false claim from either side, plus real damages and legal fees. Skipping a good-faith review of the claim counts as lying.
Anyone could look up which website handles takedown notices and who claims a dead person's likeness rights. Both lists would be posted online for the public.
More about this bill
You would get a new legal right to control realistic AI copies of your voice or face. If someone posts a fake video or audio clip of you without permission, you could sue them. The right lasts your whole life. It then passes to your heirs and can last up to 70 years after you die. The rules would start 180 days after the bill becomes law. Anyone who posts an unauthorized copy could owe at least $5,000 per work. Businesses that are not websites would owe $25,000. A website that does not follow the removal rules could owe up to $750,000 per work. Saying the clip was made by AI is not a defense. News reports, documentaries, commentary, satire, and parody are exempt. Those exemptions do not apply to sexually explicit fakes. Websites can avoid lawsuits by naming a takedown contact with the Copyright Office and pulling flagged clips down fast. Sites built on user uploads must also block later copies that match. To get your own post put back, you must sign a form in front of a notary and give your address. Rights holders can also ask a court clerk to unmask anonymous posters. A knowingly false takedown claim costs $25,000.
Congressional Summary
Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2026 or the NO FAKES Act of 2026This 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 (1) a notice-and-takedown process for unauthorized digital replicas; and (2) a counter-notification process, which allows an individual to contest the removal of a digital replica. The bill establishes penalties related to false or deceptive notice or counter-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.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-05-20
- Date Added
- 2026-07-18
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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