California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Tuesday aimed at protecting actors and other performers from unauthorized use of their digital likenesses.
Introduced in the state Legislature early this year, the bills specify new legal protections — both during performers’ lifetimes and after death — around the digital replication of their image or voice.
One of the laws, AB 2602, protects artists from being bound to contracts that allow the use of their digital voices or images, whether in lieu of their actual work or to train AI.
The other law, AB 1836, specifically protects digital likenesses as part of performers’ posthumous right of publicity, a legal right that protects people’s identities from unauthorized commercial use.
Good for them, seems necessary. Nothing to protect regular people, of course.
