Denmark plans to let citizens copyright their face, body, and voice to combat deepfakes under a new law strengthening personal digital rights.
Denmark plans to amend its copyright law to give individuals rights over their body, face, and voice, to combat AI-generated deepfakes. Believed to be the first law of its kind in Europe, the proposal has broad political support and will be submitted for consultation before summer, with a formal amendment expected in the autumn.
“The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.” reported The Guardian. “The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe.”
Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt emphasized that the new bill aims to clearly affirm everyone’s right to their own body, voice, and facial features. Speaking to The Culture Minister stressed that current laws don’t adequately protect people from being exploited by generative AI.
“People can be digitally copied and misused in countless ways, and I won’t accept that,” he told the Guardian..
With support from around 90% of MPs, the proposed law responds to the rapid rise of AI tools that make it easy to create convincing fake images, videos, or audio. Once passed, the law would allow Danish citizens to demand the removal of such deepfake content from social media platforms if shared without their consent.
Denmark’s new law will ban realistic AI-generated imitations of artists’ performances without consent, with compensation for victims. Parody and satire will not be impacted by the law bill and will remain protected. Culture Minister Engel-Schmidt warned of severe fines for non-compliant platforms and plans to push the initiative across the EU during Denmark’s upcoming EU presidency.
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, deepfakes)
