Focus: IP and Digital Rights

After years of state-level patchwork laws, the U.S. Congress passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act of 2025, which reached full enforcement in 2026. This is the first federal law that treats your “Digital Likeness” as a protected property right.

The “Notice and Takedown” for Humans

Taking a leaf from the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), this law allows any person to issue a “Likeness Takedown Notice” to a social media platform or AI generator. If someone uses your voice to narrate a video or your face in a deepfake without your consent, the platform has 24 hours to remove it or face massive federal penalties.

The End of “Prompt-Based” Impersonation

AI companies are now legally required to implement “Likeness Filters.” If a user types a prompt like “Make a video of [Celebrity Name] endorsing my product,” the AI must block the request unless a “License Token” is provided. In 2026, a new marketplace for “Likeness Licenses” has emerged, where influencers and celebrities sell cryptographically signed permissions to use their digital twins.

Post-Mortem Rights

Crucially, the 2026 law extends these protections 70 years after death. This prevents companies from “resurrecting” deceased actors or historical figures for commercials without the consent of their estate, effectively treating a person’s digital identity with the same reverence as their physical estate.