Binding law — in force
AI-generated voice or likeness of a living person needs prior consent before use on products or in advertising (California)
California Civil Code 3344(a)(1) makes a person who knowingly uses another's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or to advertise, sell, or solicit purchases, without that person's prior consent (a parent's or guardian's for a minor) liable for the greater of $750 or actual damages, attributable profits, punitive damages, and attorney's fees; since 2026 a court order to remove or stop distributing the material must be complied with within two business days (3344(a)(2)). News, public affairs, sports, and political campaign uses need no consent (3344(d)), and advertising media owners are exempt unless they knew of the unauthorized use (3344(f)). This rule covers the part not encoded elsewhere: a living person's AI-generated or cloned voice or likeness used commercially (AB 1836 covers deceased personalities; the Tennessee ELVIS Act covers distributing likeness-cloning tools). Detect voice-clone, face-swap, or likeness-generation code in a commercial or advertising path with no consent record.
Who it applies to
- Duty falls on: deployer, organization
- Anyone who knowingly uses a living person's name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness on or in products or for advertising or selling, where California law governs the claim. Whether an AI-generated sound-alike voice or synthetic likeness is the person's 'voice' or 'likeness' under 3344, and whether a generation platform is the person who 'knowingly uses' it, are legal determinations. Current text (adding the two-business-day removal duty) in force since 2026-01-01 (Stats. 2025, ch. 590).
- Not covered:
- Use in connection with any news, public affairs, or sports broadcast or account, or any political campaign (3344(d))
- Owners or employees of an advertising medium that publishes the material without knowledge of the unauthorized use (3344(f))
- Whether it applies depends on facts outside the code; a person has to decide.
The guard to add
Check a recorded commercial-use consent or talent release for the depicted person before a generated or cloned voice or likeness is published to an ad, product, or storefront.
A consent gate on the path from the likeness generator (face swap, voice clone, identity-preserving image model) to every commercial sink: ad-platform creative uploads, product listings and storefront media, public campaign buckets, merchandise publishing. The gate looks up a consent or talent-release record for the person whose face or voice is reproduced, scoped to commercial use, refuses to publish without a live record, and stamps the asset with the release id so it can be traced and pulled later. A public-figure or celebrity filter runs before generation so references to well-known people are blocked unless a release is on file.
Where it goes: 1 application source code, 2 data models, 6 API calls and integrations, 9 AI output handling.
What this provision adds:
- For a minor, the gate checks consent given by the minor's parent or guardian.
- Provide a takedown path that can remove or stop distributing a generated asset within two business days of a court order.
- News, public affairs, sports, and political campaign uses need no consent; when the gate relies on one of these, record that classification on the asset.
Example (Python insightface + boto3), before:
def build_ad_creative(person_id, frame, target_face, source_face):
out = swapper.get(frame, target_face, source_face, paste_back=True)
cv2.imwrite('/tmp/ad.png', out)
s3.upload_file('/tmp/ad.png', 'campaign-public', f'ads/{person_id}.png')After:
def build_ad_creative(person_id, frame, target_face, source_face):
release = consents.get(person_id=person_id, scope='commercial')
if release is None or release.revoked_at:
raise ConsentRequired('no commercial likeness release for this person')
out = swapper.get(frame, target_face, source_face, paste_back=True)
cv2.imwrite('/tmp/ad.png', out)
s3.upload_file('/tmp/ad.png', 'campaign-public', f'ads/{person_id}.png',
ExtraArgs={'Metadata': {'talent_release_id': str(release.id)}})Control: AI-generated voice or likeness of a real person used on products or in advertising without that person's consent. The same guard addresses 1 item with binding law in 1 jurisdiction. Engineering guidance, not legal advice.
Rule id ca-civ-3344.ai-likeness-commercial-use-consent · review status: primary source derived