What Is the NO FAKES Act? 10-Year Licenses, 70 Years After Death, $750,000 per Work

Key Takeaways:

The NO FAKES Act of 2026 is S. 4591, introduced on May 20, 2026 by Senator Chris Coons with 15 cosponsors, eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported it on June 24 with a full substitute, and it has sat on the Senate calendar as Calendar No. 446 since then. It is not law
It would create a federal property right in your voice and visual likeness. You could license it, but you could not sell it outright while you are alive
Any license would be capped at 10 years, must be in writing and signed, and must describe the intended uses. For a creator under 18 the cap is 5 years, and the license ends at 18
After death the right runs 10 years, then renews in 5-year blocks only if the likeness was in authorized public use during the prior two years. It ends 70 years after death no matter what
The minimum award is $5,000 per work against an individual and $25,000 per work against a company. A platform that ignores the takedown rules faces $5,000 per copy, up to $750,000 per work
A "made with AI" label is explicitly not a defense. Consent is the only thing that makes a replica of a real person lawful under the bill

Somebody has already made a version of you that you did not record. For most creators with a real audience, that stopped being hypothetical a while ago: a cloned voice in a supplement ad, a face swapped into a crypto pitch, a "new episode" you never taped. Right now the answer depends on which state you live in and which platform hosts the fake. The NO FAKES Act is Congress's attempt to replace that patchwork with one federal right. We read the version the Senate Judiciary Committee reported on June 24, 2026 so you do not have to. Here is what it would do, checked against the bill text on September 30, 2026.

What Is the NO FAKES Act?

The NO FAKES Act (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act) is a pending federal bill, S. 4591 in the Senate and H.R. 8915 in the House, that would give every individual a property right to authorize or refuse any "digital replica" of their voice or visual likeness. A digital replica is a newly created, computer-generated, highly realistic representation that is readily identifiable as a specific person, in a recording or video they did not actually perform, or one whose performance was materially altered. Two details in that definition matter more than the rest. First, it protects everyone, not only celebrities; "individual" means "a human being, living or dead." Second, ordinary editing is carved out. Sampling, remixing, mastering and remastering authorized by the copyright holder are not replicas. The bill has been here before. S. 1367 and its House twin H.R. 2794 were introduced in April 2025 and never left committee. The 2026 version got further: the committee ordered it reported favorably on June 18, and it now has a place on the calendar. Its House companion, H.R. 8915, sponsored by Representative María Elvira Salazar, has had no action since it was referred on May 20.

How Long Can Someone License Your Voice and Face?

Under S. 4591, a license of your digital replica right lasts 10 years at most while you are alive. It must be in writing, signed by you, and include "a reasonably specific description of the intended uses." For anyone under 18, a license lasts 5 years at most and ends automatically on their 18th birthday. This is the part of the bill that reaches into contracts creators are already signing. Talent agreements, brand deals and AI voice platforms routinely ask for likeness rights "in perpetuity, in all media now known or hereafter devised." For the new federal right, the bill would make that language unenforceable past a decade and would make a vague grant ("any and all uses") hard to defend. If you have ever wondered what a usage-rights clause actually buys a brand, this is the same question with your face attached, and the bill gives it a statutory clock. You also cannot sell the right outright. It is "not assignable during the life of the individual," including through bankruptcy or a court order. You can rent it out. You cannot lose it.

The post-mortem rules are where the bill gets interesting for anyone building something to outlast them. After death, heirs hold the right exclusively for 10 years. After that it renews in 5-year periods, but only if the heirs can show "active and authorized public use" of the voice or likeness in commerce during the two years before each period expires. It stops at 70 years regardless. Read that renewal test carefully, because the bill defines what counts. "The commercial availability of a sound recording or audiovisual work" in which the person is identifiable is enough. In other words, a likeness stays protected after death only while something is still being sold with it. A creator whose work lives on in a product people keep paying for has kept their right alive. A creator whose archive is a feed on somebody else's platform has left that question to the platform.

Who Would Be Liable for a Deepfake of You?

Anyone who publishes, distributes or transmits an unauthorized digital replica with actual knowledge that it is unauthorized, and anyone who distributes a tool "primarily designed" to produce replicas of specifically identified people without their consent. Platforms that host user uploads are liable only after they receive a valid notice and fail to act. That second category is narrower than it sounds. A general-purpose voice model is not covered. An app marketed as "sound exactly like [famous streamer]" is. The bill targets products built around cloning a named person, not the underlying technology. The exclusions protect the uses a free press needs. A replica is not actionable in bona fide news, public affairs or sports coverage; in a documentary or biographical work, unless it creates the false impression that the footage is authentic; in "bona fide commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire, or parody"; or when the use is "fleeting or negligible." None of those exclusions applies to sexually explicit replicas. One line should end a common excuse. The bill says it "shall not be a defense" that the publisher displayed a disclaimer saying the replica was unauthorized or was made with AI. That is the opposite of how AI content labels on YouTube, TikTok and Meta work. A label satisfies platform policy. It does nothing for a real person who never agreed to be copied.

What a Copy Would Cost: $5,000 to $750,000 per Work

The bill sets a minimum award per unauthorized work, or actual damages plus the infringer's profits if that figure is higher. The minimums are $5,000 per work against an individual, $25,000 per work against a company that is not an online service, and $25,000 per work against a platform that made a good faith effort to follow the takedown rules. A platform that did not make that effort owes $5,000 per copy, display or transmission, up to $750,000 per work.

Willful violations can add punitive damages, and a winning plaintiff recovers attorney's fees. You have three years from the date you discovered, or should have discovered, the violation to sue. The takedown system borrows its shape from copyright. A platform that hosts user uploads must register a designated agent with the Copyright Office, remove a noticed replica "as soon as is technologically and practically feasible," and then block later uploads that match its digital fingerprint. The uploader can file a counter-notice, and the platform may then restore the material after at least 14 days unless you sue. Filing a false notice costs at least $25,000 per notice, which is aimed squarely at anyone tempted to use the system against critics.

A right you can license is worth more when there is a business built to use it.

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Does the NO FAKES Act Replace State Laws?

Partly. The bill preempts state-law claims over digital replicas in expressive works, but it preserves any state statute or common-law claim that already existed on January 2, 2025, along with state laws specifically about sexually explicit or election-related replicas. That date is doing a lot of work. Tennessee's ELVIS Act, which added voice to the state's publicity right and took effect July 1, 2024, is older than the cutoff and would survive. State replica laws written after January 2, 2025 would lose force wherever they cover the same ground in an expressive work. How courts would draw that line for advertising and other commercial uses is an open question the bill does not settle.

If You Are a Voice-Driven Creator, Start Here

If you host a podcast, narrate videos, stream, or sell anything where your voice is the product, you are the person this bill was written for, and you do not have to wait for the Senate floor.

Turn on YouTube's likeness detection. It is available in YouTube Studio to channel owners and managers over 18, after you verify with a government ID and a short selfie video. YouTube's help page says it currently matches faces only, and that the company aims "to extend likeness detection to audio in the near future." For voice today, use its privacy complaint process.
Find the perpetuity clauses. Search your current brand, agency and platform agreements for "likeness," "voice," "simulation" and "in perpetuity." Those are the grants S. 4591 would cap at 10 years for replicas. Renegotiating them now costs less than litigating later.
Keep your claims records. The three-year clock runs from discovery, so a dated folder of links, screenshots and takedown requests is worth more than a memory of them.
Register the name, too. A voice right does not stop someone using your brand name on a product. That is a separate system with its own 45 classes and filing fees.

What the Bill Assumes About Creators

Every mechanism in S. 4591 assumes your identity has value that somebody else might try to capture. It gives you a right to say no, a price for saying yes, and a renewal test that rewards continuing to sell something with your name on it. That last part is the quiet argument in the bill. Creators whose income is entirely attention have a likeness worth protecting and nothing that uses it on their terms. We have seen what happens when a name is famous and the owned surface is thin: Livvy Dunne's own website stopped publishing on the day college athletes were first allowed to earn from their name, image and likeness. A licensable right is most useful to someone who already owns the business it would be licensed to. Built by Foundry builds that business: $0 upfront, a revenue share, roughly three weeks from decision to a live product, and we keep running and maintaining it afterwards. The creator owns it. Here is how the model works.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is the NO FAKES Act law?

No. As of September 30, 2026, S. 4591 has been reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee and placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar as Calendar No. 446, with its latest action dated June 24, 2026. The House companion, H.R. 8915, is still in the House Judiciary Committee. Neither chamber has voted on it.

Does the NO FAKES Act cover people who are not famous?

Yes. The bill defines an individual as any human being, living or dead. A separate provision protects a defendant whose replica only coincidentally resembles someone, but only if that person has not achieved public recognition or their likeness has no commercial value.

Does the NO FAKES Act ban AI voice cloning?

No. A replica is lawful if the person or right holder authorizes it through a written, signed license that describes its intended uses. General-purpose AI tools are covered by a safe harbor. Tools primarily designed to replicate specifically identified people without consent are not.

Can a brand own my likeness forever under the NO FAKES Act?

No. The right cannot be assigned during your lifetime, and any license of it is valid for a maximum of 10 years while you are alive, or 5 years for someone under 18, ending at their 18th birthday.

Does labeling a deepfake as AI make it legal under the NO FAKES Act?

No. The bill states that a disclaimer saying a replica was unauthorized or was generated by artificial intelligence is not a defense. Sources verified September 30, 2026: the reported text of S. 4591 and its actions, cosponsors and related bills through the Congress.gov API; H.R. 8915; S. 1367; the Tennessee General Assembly's record for HB 2091, Public Chapter 588; and YouTube's likeness detection help page. Bill text can change before a floor vote. This article is information, not legal advice.

What Is the NO FAKES Act? 10-Year Licenses, 70 Years After Death, $750,000 per Work

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