Legal boundaries governing generative AI voice clones, digital likeness replacement in film, and post-mortem digital replica property rights.
From Midler v. Ford Motor Co. (holding that deliberately imitating a distinctive singer's voice constitutes common law misappropriation) to the modern deepfake explosion, persona law shields identity attributes from unauthorized commercial appropriation. The proposed federal NO FAKES Act and California AB 2602 establish statutory property rights and prohibit unconscionable contractual clauses that grant broad synthetic replication rights without specific project definitions.
State-level publicity rights vary widely: California and Tennessee provide extensive statutory and post-mortem protections, whereas other states limit persona claims to narrow commercial endorsement torts.
