I'm a constituent and I'm writing to ask you to vote against the NO FAKES Act. I share the goal of stopping AI-generated impersonations — nobody wants their face or voice used to push scams or put words in their mouth. But this bill doesn't do that. It creates a sweeping new federal property right in everyone's likeness and voice, then builds a takedown machine on top of it.
The mechanics are the problem. Platforms would have to remove content once someone claims it contains an unauthorized replica or risk losing liability protection, with penalties running to $5,000 per work for individuals and $750,000 per work for services that leave flagged content up. Facing that kind of exposure, any rational platform deletes first and sorts it out later. Satire, commentary, documentary footage, and news all use real faces and voices.
A broad coalition has flagged this: EFF, the ACLU, the Center for Democracy & Technology, FIRE, Public Knowledge, the Organization for Transformative Works, Fight for the Future, and the R Street Institute have all urged Judiciary not to advance it. Three of their points deserve your attention. It's a property right, not a privacy right — meaning it can be signed away in a contract, which is precisely what studios and labels will demand, leaving working artists less protected rather than more. The right survives death for up to 70 years and passes to heirs, turning estates into long-term gatekeepers of who may speak about the dead. And Congress may lack the authority altogether, since the IP Clause covers "writings and discoveries," not facts about a person's appearance.
Deepfake harms are real, and narrower fixes exist. Building a censorship apparatus to address them is worse than the problem.
Please oppose NO FAKES as written.
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