California AB 1836 (digital replica)

Informational data, not legal advice. Summaries are TwinEthos's own words and rules have not been reviewed by a lawyer: check the official text before relying on any of it. A guard addresses an item; adding it is not a statement that your code meets any law.

Official text: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

Binding law — in force

Digital replicas of deceased personalities require estate consent (California)

Cal. Civ. Code 3344.1(a)(2)(A) · official text · In force: applies since 1 Jan 2025 · California (US-CA)

Under California AB 1836 (Civil Code 3344.1(a)(2)), a person who produces, distributes, or makes available the digital replica of a deceased personality's voice or likeness in an expressive audiovisual work or sound recording without prior consent from the estate/rights-holder is liable for the greater of $10,000 or actual damages. 'Digital replica' is a computer-generated, highly realistic representation readily identifiable as the individual, where they did not actually perform or their performance was materially altered. Exceptions: news/public-affairs/sports, comment/criticism/scholarship/satire/parody, documentary/biographical, fleeting/incidental. Detect a likeness/voice-generation path targeting a deceased personality with no estate-consent or exception check.

Who it applies to

Duty falls on: provider
Systems covered: limited risk
Persons producing/distributing digital replicas of deceased personalities (commercial value at death) in expressive audiovisual works or sound recordings, for acts occurring in California. Effective 2025-01-01. Applies within 70 years of death. Exceptions for news, commentary, documentary, incidental use.
Whether it applies depends on facts outside the code; a person has to decide.

The guard to add

Require an estate or rights-holder consent record, or a reviewer's stored exception determination, on a deceased personality's replica job before it is generated or published.

A check in the job that generates a voice or likeness replica of a deceased personality, repeated at the publish or download step, that requires one of two things attached to the job: a consent or license record from the estate or successor-in-interest for that personality, or an exception determination (news, commentary or parody, documentary or biographical, fleeting or incidental use) made and signed off by a named reviewer. Jobs with neither are refused, and the record id travels with the rendered audio or video so distribution can be traced.

Where it goes: 1 application source code, 2 data models, 6 API calls and integrations.

What this provision adds:

Trigger the estate-consent check for personalities who died within the last 70 years.
Exception categories the job may record: news, public affairs, or sports; comment, criticism, scholarship, satire, or parody; documentary or biographical; fleeting or incidental use.

Example (Python Coqui XTTS job), before:

def render_tribute(job):
    tts.tts_to_file(text=job.script, speaker_wav=job.late_artist_sample,
                    language='en', file_path=job.out_path)
    publish(job.out_path, title=job.title)

After:

def render_tribute(job):
    grant = estate_consent.lookup(personality_id=job.personality_id, use='sound_recording')
    exception = job.exception_determination   # e.g. 'parody_exception', set by a reviewer
    if grant is None and exception is None:
        raise ReplicaBlocked('no estate consent or reviewed exception for this personality')
    tts.tts_to_file(text=job.script, speaker_wav=job.late_artist_sample,
                    language='en', file_path=job.out_path)
    publish(job.out_path, title=job.title,
            rights_ref=grant.id if grant else f'exception:{exception}')

Control: Digital replica of a deceased personality without estate consent. The same guard addresses 1 item with binding law in 1 jurisdiction. Engineering guidance, not legal advice.

Rule id ca-ab1836.digital-replica-deceased-consent · review status: primary source derived