Copyright Office Part 1 on digital replicas: federal law urged

The Copyright Office AI page lists Part 1 on digital replicas (31 July 2024), which recommends federal legislation. What a voice or face project should know.

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The U.S. Copyright Office's AI page lists Part 1 of its report, on digital replicas, dated 31 July 2024, and says it recommends federal legislation. If your project clones a face or voice, this is the Office's own statement of the gap in existing law, not a law itself.

The three parts listed

The page lists Part 2 on copyrightability, dated 29 January 2025, and Part 3 on generative AI training, dated 9 May 2025 and marked pre-publication. Registration guidance dated 16 March 2023 is also listed. I saw no 2026 update on the page.

Copyright Office AI page, read 2026-10-02
PartTopicDate
1Digital replicas, recommends federal legislation31 July 2024
2Copyrightability29 January 2025
3Generative AI training (pre-publication)9 May 2025
GuidanceRegistration16 March 2023

What it means for replicas

A recommendation is not a statute. State laws, such as Tennessee's, are where voice and likeness rules sit today. Treat consent as the working rule.

Keep records

Record who consented, to what, and when, next to the job id of the generated asset. Sume's Face Swap Beta takes an avatar handle you control; see the evidence log pattern.

Sources

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