Definition
Right of publicity is the right of publicity is a person's legal control over commercial use of their name, image, likeness and, in some states, voice, and it is the main legal tool against unauthorized AI deepfakes and voice clones.
The right of publicity lets a person control how their identity is used commercially. It covers things like name, image and likeness, and in some places voice. If a company uses your face or voice to sell something without permission, this is the claim you would bring.
In the US there is no single federal right of publicity. It comes from state statutes and court decisions, so the rules differ from state to state. Some states protect only living people. Others extend protection after death. Exceptions typically exist for news, commentary, satire and other expressive uses.
It is also separate from copyright. Copyright protects a specific work, such as a recording or a lyric. The right of publicity protects the person, whether or not any particular work was copied.
Generative tools can produce a convincing face or voice from a short sample. A voice clone of a singer can deliver new lyrics the singer never recorded. A deepfake can put a real person in an ad. Neither one needs to copy any existing recording, so a copyright claim may not fit, while a publicity claim does.
Tennessee's ELVIS Act, signed in March 2024, is a well-known example. It added voice to the state's statutory protections and targets unauthorized AI voice cloning, with exceptions for uses such as commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire and parody.
If you generate or publish AI audio, video or images of a real person, ask whether you have their permission, and whether the use is commercial. The tool's terms of service do not give you rights you do not have. Prompting for a named artist's sound or look is where most of the risk sits.
The right of publicity usually attaches to the output, which is what makes it different from fights over training data. Whether the model was trained lawfully is one question. Whether a particular generated track or image trades on someone's identity is another.
Rules about AI watermarking and C2PA provenance labels help show what was generated. Fair use is the usual defense in copyright cases, while publicity claims run on different tests. This is general information, not legal advice. Check the law where you operate.
No. Copyright protects a specific creative work. The right of publicity protects a person's name, image, likeness and sometimes voice from unauthorized commercial use.
It can, where a state protects voice and the clone is used commercially without permission. Tennessee's ELVIS Act is one example.
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