The U.S. Copyright Office, the Authors Guild, and the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) are holding a joint virtual event on AI and copyright, addressing how writers and audiobook narrators can protect their work and collaborate as AI tools spread through creative industries. The session will feature Miriam Lord, Associate Register of Copyrights, who will explain what the copyright process currently protects and what creators should lock down contractually when AI enters a project.
The event comes as voice actors and authors face mounting questions about synthetic voices, AI-generated text, and who owns work produced with machine assistance. NAVA president Tim Friedlander and Authors Guild director of policy and advocacy Umair Kazi will offer practical recommendations for creators who want to use AI tools-or explicitly block their projects from AI involvement.
What the copyright office can and cannot protect
Miriam Lord leads public information and education for the Copyright Office and serves as one of four legal advisors to the Register of Copyrights. Her session will cut through confusion about where copyright law currently stands on AI. The core message: creators need to understand what registration protects, and what must be handled through contracts instead.
Lord's background includes directing the Global Intellectual Property Academy at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and running Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, where she provided pro bono legal help to artists and creative startups. That experience puts her in direct contact with the practical problems writers and performers face when technology outpaces legislation.
Contract terms and the indie publishing workflow
Tim Friedlander, a working voice actor known for roles in Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, and the Like A Dragon series, co-founded NAVA to advocate for voice actors' rights. He has pressed lawmakers on Capitol Hill in more than 100 meetings and presented to the UN Emerging Tech Committee and the FTC. In 2024, he participated in the White House AI Summit on Deepfakes hosted by the NSA.
Umair Kazi, who studied law at the University of Iowa and creative writing at Columbia, directs policy and advocacy for the Authors Guild. Together, Friedlander and Kazi will walk through what an indie author and narrator should agree on before starting a self-published audiobook-covering AI usage clauses, royalty splits, and voice rights.
A coalition pushing for federal voice and likeness protections
Friedlander also co-founded the Creators Coalition on AI, a group pushing for federal-level ownership of voice, image, name, and likeness. His advocacy has been covered by the LA Times, WIRED, the NY Times, and the BBC. The event reflects a broader effort by NAVA and the Authors Guild Foundation to give creators concrete tools-not just policy positions-for navigating AI in their daily work.
For writers and voice actors exploring how AI intersects with their craft, resources like AI for Creatives Courses offer structured guidance on using these tools without surrendering creative control.
Why this matters for writers
The event zeroes in on a gap many writers discover too late: copyright registration protects certain elements of a work, but it does not govern how a narrator's voice can be cloned or how AI training data gets used. Lord's appearance signals that the Copyright Office is paying attention, but the advice will likely emphasize what writers must negotiate upfront-before a contract is signed or a manuscript is uploaded to a platform.
For indie authors producing audiobooks, the session offers a rare walkthrough of the actual collaboration process with a narrator in an AI-saturated market. The recommendations from Friedlander and Kazi will address whether to permit AI usage at all, and what clauses belong in a contract to prevent a voice from being synthesized without consent.
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