Senate Bill Against Deepfakes Would Revise Copyright Laws
WASHINGTON — Four senators reintroduced a bill Thursday to reduce the number of harmful fake replicas on the internet created by artificial intelligence.
It would require internet companies to remove the “deepfakes” as soon as they are notified by the entities whose images or copyrighted material is being mimicked by the forgeries.
The senators drew motivation from a U.S. Copyright Office report a day earlier warning that deepfakes were getting out of control, particularly when they consist of images of women for pornography.
Many of the women are celebrities or young persons who are being publicly shamed.
The imagery has become so sophisticated that it is nearly indistinguishable from real photos or videos.
Other copyright risks come from music or artistic work that is used in deepfakes. It can undermine the value of artists’ work and deprive them of income they should receive, the U.S. Copyright Office report said.
“Everyone deserves the right to own and protect their voice and likeness, no matter if you’re Taylor Swift or anyone else,” U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a statement. “Generative AI can be used as a tool to foster creativity, but that can’t come at the expense of the unauthorized exploitation of anyone’s voice or likeness.”
The updated version of the NO FAKES Act that Coons and other senators sponsored allows exceptions for deepfakes that represent free speech. They include works of parody, criticism of public figures and news documentaries.
The exceptions resulted from criticisms of the original version of the bill some of the same senators introduced last year.
NO FAKES is an acronym for Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe.
Free speech advocates said the NO FAKES Act was a thinly veiled form of government censorship that could violate First Amendment rights. They also said it would violate Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Section 230 grants immunity from liability to internet service providers and social media for content posted by their users.
The NO FAKES Act represents the latest effort by lawmakers to curtail portions of Section 230 that allow users to post illegal, threatening, violent or pornographic content.
The RE:Create Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for avoiding copyright restrictions that might inhibit innovation, said the NO FAKES Act threatens “the open internet, free speech and the future of creativity.”
“The NO FAKES Act would create more problems for creativity and society than it solves,” the organization said in a statement. “The bill creates an unprecedented new federal intellectual property scheme that shrinks the public domain, undermines Section 230, endangers consumer privacy and threatens free expression online.”
The Copyright Office said in its report to Congress that free expression is not the issue in its call to eliminate legal loopholes that harm innocent persons.
“It has become clear that the distribution of unauthorized digital replicas poses a serious threat not only in the entertainment and political arenas but also for private citizens,” Shira Perlmutter, register of copyrights and director of the Copyright Office, said in a statement. “We believe there is an urgent need for effective nationwide protection against the harms that can be caused to reputations and livelihoods.”
An example mentioned in the report is the proliferation of deepfake pornography.
“In 2023, researchers concluded that explicit images make up 98% of all deepfake videos online, with 99% of the individuals represented being women,” the report said. “Instances of students creating and posting deepfake explicit images of classmates appear to be multiplying.”
Distributors of illegal deepfakes, such as internet service providers and website owners, should be liable when they have “actual knowledge” of the forgery, the Copyright Office said.
The victims should have rights to monetary damages, injunctions against the offenders and attorneys fees, the report said.
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