United States of America: Act establishing property rights over name, voice, and visual likeness and penalties for unauthorised digital replication (HB 513) was signed by Governor

On 13 May 2025, the Montana Governor signed the Act establishing property rights over name, voice, and visual likeness and penalties for unauthorised digital replication (HB 513) into law. The Act will enter into force on 1 January 2026. The Act establishes property rights over an individual’s name, voice, and visual likeness, applicable to Montana residents or individuals domiciled in the state at death. The Act introduces liability for distributing or publishing tools or technologies with actual knowledge that they are intended to produce unauthorised digital voice or visual depictions for commercial use. Such depictions are defined as computer-generated renderings that closely resemble an individual’s real voice or appearance. The rights are licensable, transferable, and descendible for 20 years after death. Civil liability includes actual damages and attributable profits, with claimants required to show only gross revenue from the unauthorised use. The Act exempts broadband internet access service providers and uses protected under the United States Constitution, including news reporting, commentary, criticism, satire, parody, scholarship, and uses that are fleeting or negligible.