A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill Tuesday that would criminalize the spread of nonconsensual, sexualized images generated by artificial intelligence. The measure comes in direct response to the proliferation of pornographic AI-made images of Taylor Swift on X, formerly Twitter, in recent days.
The measure would allow victims depicted in nude or sexually explicit “digital forgeries” to seek a civil penalty against “individuals who produced or possessed the forgery with intent to distribute it” or anyone who received the material knowing it was not made with consent. Dick Durbin, the US Senate majority whip, and senators Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley are behind the bill, known as the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024, or the “Defiance Act.”
So what happens if a person allows their likeness to be 3d modeled and textured for something like a video game, and that 3d model is used to create explicit images. Is that not a problem (or maybe a different kind of problem) because it’s not a deepfake and instead a use of a digital asset?
Copying the asset out of the game file might be a copyright violation but you’re usually allowed to make private copies. IDK to what a degree copyright extends to images made with such an asset. (Funny story. The WWE released a video game with likenesses of their wrestlers (performers? actors? artists? IDK). A tattooist sued because that showed a design of theirs on the skin of a wrestler and won. So much for “my body belongs to me”.)
As far as this bill is concerned. This bill defines anything as a"digital forgery" that is made with “technological means […] to appear to a reasonable person to be indistinguishable from an authentic visual depiction of the individual". IDK how good the reasonable person is at spotting CGI. Quick google says that the average juror is about 50 years old. Make of that what you will.
Technically the terms of use of a persons likeness would be defined in a contract in the case of a product, but since unauthorized use is already not a legal or protected activity in any way then I believe the bill’s intention is to add potentially fines or prison time to offenders on top of opening them up to legal liability.
If the studio had an actor’s written consent then it would be left up to the courts as a civil matter, only.