The NO FAKES Act and the ELVIS Act: Who Owns Your Voice

This article explains the new laws being built to protect a person's voice and likeness from unauthorized artificial replicas, and what they do and do not cover. It is informational only. It is not legal advice, and it creates no attorney client relationship.

Start with the gap, because the gap is the entire reason these laws exist. Copyright protects a song, the specific recording, the specific words and notes. On its own it does not protect the sound of your voice. That means a convincing AI clone of a singer can generate a brand new track that infringes no copyright at all, because the melody and lyrics are original. It simply wears the singer's voice. Copyright shrugs. Something else has to step in.

The right that fills the gap

That something is the right of publicity, the right to control the commercial use of your own identity. Historically it protected name, image, and likeness, and it lived almost entirely at the state level, which means it changes when you cross a state line. Voice was often protected only indirectly, if at all. The arrival of cheap, convincing voice cloning exposed how thin that protection had become, and lawmakers have started to respond.

Tennessee moves first: the ELVIS Act

Tennessee, home to a large share of the recording industry, moved first and hardest. The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, known as the ELVIS Act, took effect on July 1, 2024. It updated the state right of publicity to protect a person's voice explicitly, naming it as a protected element of identity alongside name and likeness.

Two features make the law notable. First, it reaches the tools, not just the final use. It creates liability not only for someone who publishes an unauthorized vocal clone but also for those who make available a product or service whose primary purpose is producing unauthorized replicas of a person's voice or likeness. Second, it treats a distinctive voice as protectable identity in its own right. For a working singer, that is a direct answer to the exact harm cheap cloning creates.

The federal proposal: the NO FAKES Act

At the national level, the proposed NO FAKES Act would create a federal right against unauthorized AI generated replicas of a person's voice and visual likeness. As described in the bill, the right would be licensable, so a person could authorize uses on their own terms, and it would survive death for a period, so an estate could control a performer's voice after they are gone. The bill also contemplates a notice and takedown structure, giving online platforms a safe harbor if they remove unauthorized replicas after being notified, similar in spirit to the takedown system that already exists for copyright.

The crucial point for 2026 is status. The NO FAKES Act was a bill, not an enacted law. That means there was no single nationwide standard, and protection continued to depend heavily on which state a person and an infringer happened to sit in.

The state patchwork

Other states have not waited for Congress. California, the other center of gravity for entertainment, enacted two relevant laws that took effect at the start of 2025. One restricts the use of digital replicas of deceased personalities without the consent of their estates. The other requires specific, informed consent before a living performer can be bound by a contract permitting an AI generated digital replica of their voice or likeness, a protection aimed squarely at lopsided contract terms. Several other states run their own right of publicity regimes of varying strength.

The result is a patchwork. A cloned vocal that is clearly actionable in Tennessee or California may be far harder to challenge in a state with a weak or narrow right of publicity. Where the parties are located can matter as much as what was actually done.

What an independent artist can do now

A few practical measures follow from the current landscape. Read your contracts closely, because the most common way artists lose control of their AI voice rights is by signing them away in broad language they never noticed. Insist that agreements address digital replicas specifically, stating clearly whether an AI version of your voice is permitted, for what, and for how long. Learn the strength of the right of publicity in your own state, since that law, not copyright, is your primary shield against a clone. And keep in mind that these protections are arriving unevenly and quickly, so what is true this year may widen the next.

As always, this is general information rather than legal advice, and this area is changing faster than almost any other corner of the law. Before you sign an agreement, license your voice, or respond to a suspected clone, consult a licensed attorney about your specific circumstances.