Courts undecided, artists rally lawmakers to protect likeness and identity from AI

Protecting Your Likeness and Identity as Generative AI Scales

Generative AI is moving fast, and creatives are feeling the squeeze. Writers, artists, and performers are seeing their style, voice, and image copied without consent - and sometimes monetized by others.

Moiya McTier of the Human Artistry Campaign says creatives need to band together and advocate for themselves. While federal courts haven't settled whether training on copyrighted works is infringement, artists are also turning to legislators to protect their likenesses and identities as the tech advances.

What's Actually at Stake

• Likeness and voice: Face swaps, voice clones, and deepfakes can confuse your audience and damage your brand.
• Style and identity: Models can imitate your signature look or writing tone, diluting the value of your work.
• Attribution and income: Your work can be referenced or ingested without credit, approval, or payment.

The Legal Picture (Right Now)

Courts haven't delivered a clear answer on whether training on copyrighted materials is infringement. That uncertainty slows enforcement and payouts. Meanwhile, right-of-publicity and likeness laws vary by state, and new proposals are on the table to address AI cloning and synthetic media.

Translation: the legal ground is shifting - so protect yourself with clear contracts, smart publishing habits, and collective pressure.

Practical Moves You Can Make Today

• Register your work. If you publish visual art, writing, music, or video, register it. It strengthens your position if you need to enforce rights.
• Use "Do Not Train" directives. Add meta tags and headers like X-Robots-Tag: noai, noimageai where possible. Some AI crawlers respect these signals. Also consider robots.txt blocks for known AI bots.
• Adopt Content Credentials. Use C2PA/Content Credentials to attach tamper-evident provenance to images, audio, and video. It helps audiences and platforms verify what's authentic and who created it. Learn about C2PA.
• Watermark and seed carefully. Share lower-res or watermarked previews publicly. Keep full-res files behind gated delivery or client portals.
• Lock down your likeness. Use model and appearance releases that explicitly ban AI training, synthetic replicas, or voice cloning without separate written consent and payment.
• Tighten your licenses. Add "No AI training, no embeddings, no dataset creation" clauses to publishing, platform, and client agreements. Require removal on breach.
• Set platform preferences. Where available, opt out of training in your account settings for art, code, notes, or uploaded files.
• Monitor and enforce. Track unauthorized uses with reverse image search, audio fingerprinting, or style/phrase searches. Send DMCA notices and right-of-publicity takedowns where appropriate.
• Opt-out where supported. Some datasets and tools allow removal requests. Keep receipts - screenshots, timestamps, and emails.
• Join forces. Collectives, unions, and campaigns increase leverage for fair terms and clearer rules.

Contract Language You Can Reuse

• No Training: "Licensee shall not use the Work, Creator's name, image, voice, likeness, or related metadata to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any AI system, nor to create datasets, embeddings, or derivative machine representations."
• No Synthetic Replicas: "No creation, distribution, or commissioning of synthetic representations (image, audio, video, text) that imply endorsement or originate from Creator's likeness, voice, or distinct style without separate written consent and compensation."
• Attribution and Removal: "Attribution is required where feasible. Upon notice of breach, Licensee must remove non-compliant content/datasets within 10 days."
• Indemnity: "Licensee agrees to indemnify Creator against claims arising from unauthorized AI uses enabled by Licensee."

If Your Likeness Is Cloned

• Document everything. Save files, URLs, and timestamps. Record how it harms your brand or income.
• Contact the host/platform. Use impersonation, right-of-publicity, and copyright/DMCA channels. Ask for swift removal and disclosure of the source.
• Escalate with counsel. Consider a rights-of-publicity claim and contract breach if a client or platform enabled the misuse.
• Notify your audience. Post a clear statement distinguishing your authentic channels. Add Content Credentials to future releases.

Collective Action Works

The signal gets louder when we move together. As McTier argues, creatives should align on standards, push for consent-based training, and fight for compensation that reflects the value we bring.

• Support initiatives that promote consent, credit, and compensation.
• Coordinate takedowns and share playbooks across your community or guild.
• Back legislation that protects likeness and identity without blocking legitimate creative practice.

Stay Informed and Prepared

• Track policy updates: The U.S. Copyright Office is studying AI and authorship; their guidance matters for enforcement and registration. See official updates.
• Level up your defenses: Learn practical ways to use AI on your terms while protecting your work and persona. AI for Creatives

Quick Checklist

• Register new works and keep originals organized.
• Add "Do Not Train" directives and provenance metadata.
• Use watermarks/previews publicly; deliver full-res privately.
• Update contracts with no-training and no-replica clauses.
• Monitor for misuse and act fast on takedowns.
• Work with peers, unions, and campaigns to set standards and push for better laws.

AI isn't a reason to step back - it's a reason to tighten your systems, protect your name, and set the terms of engagement. Guard your likeness, defend your identity, and keep creating with clarity.