In what’s believed to be a first for a European country, Denmark is planning to give residents a copyright over their own likeness – a move that’s been called for by creative industries, including the music industry, since the rise of AI-generated deepfakes.
In a statement issued on Thursday (June 26), the Danish government said it had “broad support” from the country’s major political parties for an amendment to legislation that would give people rights over images of their facial features and body, and audio of their voice.
The proposed change will make it illegal to share deepfakes (convincing fake renderings of a person or their voice), though the law apparently will not mandate any prison or fines, but may allow for “compensation” in some circumstances, according to a report at Euronews.
The new rules are expected to make an exception for “parodies and satire.” The Danish government aims to have it in place by late this year or early 2026, and says it’s likely the first of its kind in Europe, according to The Guardian.
It’s “high time that we now create a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and at the same time send a clear signal to the tech giants,” Denmark’s Culture Minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said in a statement, as quoted by Euronews.
“We are now sending an unequivocal signal to all citizens that you have the right to your own body, your own voice and your own facial features… Technology is developing rapidly, and in the future it will be even more difficult to distinguish reality from fiction in the digital world,” Engel-Schmidt added.
The proposed Danish law has echoes of legislation put forward by US states and in the federal Congress.
The NO FAKES (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe) Act was reintroduced in the US Senate in April, brought forward by a bipartisan group of senators. The bill effectively creates a right of publicity at the US federal level for the first time: individuals will be able to control the use of their own likeness and voice.
“[It’s] high time that we now create a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and at the same time send a clear signal to the tech giants.”
Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Culture Minister, Denmark
The legislation has the backing of many prominent music industry figures, including Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, who testified before Congress last year in support of the NO FAKES Act.
“Generative AI is appropriating artists’ identities and producing deepfakes that depict people doing, saying, or singing things that never happened,” Kyncl told the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2024.
“Through AI, it is very easy for someone to impersonate me and cause all manner of havoc… They could speak to an artist in a way that could destroy our relationship. They could say untrue things about our publicly traded company to the media that would damage our business.”
Notably, besides Warner and the other recording majors – Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group – the NO FAKES Act also has the backing of major tech companies and platforms, including Amazon, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and YouTube.
Some tech companies haven’t been waiting for legislation to take action on the issue. As of last summer, YouTube’s policies have allowed people to make takedown requests of AI-generated video or audio of their likeness or voice. Last September, the Google-owned platform announced it’s working on tools to detect AI-generated faces and voices.
Individual states have also been taking on the issue, notably Tennessee – known for its prominent music industry – which last year passed the Elvis Act, which updated the state’s right of publicity law to include protections for songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals’ voices from misuse by AI.
However, that law and others like may be jeopardized by President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the omnibus budget legislation that includes a clause that would prevent states from regulating AI for 10 years.
Nevertheless, given the bipartisan support for legislation cracking down on AI-generated deepfakes, a federal law is likely to emerge from Congress and get the president’s backing.
This past May, President Trump signed into law the Take It Down Act, which bans the non-consensual online publication of both AI-generated and real sexually explicit images.Music Business Worldwide
