YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyWorkers & JobsCivil LibertiesCorporate BenefitsHigh-Earner BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityTargeted & Unrelated ProvisionsLets you sue over AI fakes of your voice or face — at least $5,000 per fake, up to $750,000 from a site that ignores takedowns.
Your Money
If someone posts a realistic AI copy of your voice or face without your permission, you can sue. The bill sets a floor of $5,000 for each work, or your actual losses plus their profits, whichever is more.
The right does not die with you. Your heirs keep it for 10 years, and can extend it in 5-year steps as long as they keep the voice or likeness in public use, up to 70 years after death.
An ordinary person is on the hook once they truly know what the material is. The floor is $5,000 per work. A court can add more for deliberate misuse.
A person who brings this kind of case and wins always gets their lawyer paid by the other side. Someone who is sued and wins gets fees back only if the judge decides the case was not brought in good faith.
Workers & Jobs
A living person cannot sign away rights to their digital replica for more than 10 years at a time. The deal has to be in writing and spell out what the replica will be used for.
A deal covering someone under 18 can run no longer than 5 years and ends on their 18th birthday. A state court has to sign off on it first.
Where a union contract already covers digital replicas, the 10-year and 5-year limits drop away. The union's own terms set how long a member's likeness is licensed.
Civil Liberties
You would hold a federal property right over lifelike computer-made copies of your voice or face. You decide who may use one. You can license it, but not sell it outright while you live.
A replica is exempt in a news, public affairs, or sports report. Documentaries and life stories are exempt. So are commentary and criticism. So are satire, parody, and brief uses.
The news, satire, and parody carve-outs have one limit. None of them cover a fake that shows sex acts.
A rights holder files a takedown notice and a draft subpoena with a court clerk. The clerk signs it without a judge reviewing the claim. The site must then hand over what identifies the poster.
To get material put back, the uploader signs a counter-notice in front of a notary. They must also agree up front to be sued in federal court.
A user-upload site or music service acts on a valid notice. It must then pull other public copies with the same digital fingerprint. That covers copies posted after the notice was handled.
Marking a work as computer-made is not a legal defense. Neither is saying the use was unauthorized. A disclaimer also cannot prove a resemblance was an accident.
Corporate Benefits
A site is protected if it names a takedown contact and pulls flagged material fast. It must also cut off repeat violators. It has no duty to hunt for fakes on its own.
Selling a tool that can make replicas is not itself a violation. It counts only if the tool is built, sold, or mostly used to fake one named person.
A label with an exclusive services deal or distribution license can bring the suit itself. The performer does not have to be the one suing.
The bill calls this right an intellectual property law. That lifts the Section 230 shield, which normally blocks suits against sites over user posts. Sites answer for replica claims once notified.
A site that skips the takedown steps faces $5,000 for each display, copy, or transmission of the material. That stacks up to $750,000 for each work, or $750,000 for each replica-making product.
High-Earner Benefits
An accidental look-alike is a defense, but not for everyone. It works only if the person shown is not publicly known, or their likeness earns nothing. People who are both known and marketable can still collect.
Transparency & Accountability
Sites that host user uploads must file a takedown contact with the Copyright Office. The office posts the list online for anyone to search. Missing the 90-day deadline counts against the site.
The Register of Copyrights would run a public online directory. It lists who controls the voice and likeness of people who have died. Holders file to renew, under oath, and may owe a fee.
Claiming material is an unauthorized fake, when you know it is not, costs $25,000 per notice. Filing without honestly checking counts as knowing it was false.
Targeted & Unrelated Provisions
What a player makes or changes inside a video game does not count as user uploaded material. The takedown duties built on that term do not reach it.
Public libraries, qualifying archives, and accredited nonprofit schools are carved out. So are their staff. The school carve-out holds only when the use is not for profit.
More about this bill
You would get a legal right to control realistic AI copies of your voice and face. Anyone who knowingly shares an unauthorized copy of you could be sued. The right covers computer-made audio, images, and video that people would recognize as you. It also covers tools built mainly to make fake copies of a specific person. The rules would start 180 days after the bill becomes law. They would apply only to what happens after that date. A Senate committee approved it on June 24, 2026. The full Senate has not voted. The damages are written into the bill. A person who shares an unauthorized copy owes at least $5,000 per work. A company owes at least $25,000. A website that ignores a valid complaint could owe up to $750,000 per work. You would have 3 years to sue after you find out. If you win, the other side pays your legal fees. If you are sued and win, you get your fees back only when the judge finds the case was baseless. Websites that host what users post would have to act on complaints. Each one must list a public contact with the Copyright Office within 90 days. After a valid notice, the site has to take the material down quickly. It also has to block later uploads that match the same file. If your post is pulled by mistake, you can ask for it back. Your request needs a signature witnessed in person by a notary. You also have to agree to be sued in federal court. The site can restore your post 14 days later if nobody sues. Some uses stay legal. News reports, documentaries, commentary, criticism, satire, and parody are carved out. Those exceptions do not apply to sexual material. Adding a label that says the work is AI-made will not protect you. The right does not end when you die. Your heirs would hold it for 10 years, and could renew it while they keep using it. It ends 70 years after death at the latest. State laws written after January 2, 2025 would give way to this federal right. State laws on sexual and election fakes would survive. The new right counts as intellectual property. That removes the usual shield protecting websites from suits over user posts.
Congressional Summary
Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2026 or the NO FAKES Act of 2026 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 (1) the use of a digital replica embodying the individual's voice or visual likeness, or (2) the use of the individual's voice or visual likeness 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
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-06-24
- Date Added
- 2026-07-03
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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