WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED ACT) July 11 to combat the rise of harmful deepfakes, said a news release from Cantwell’s office.
Cantwell said the bill would set new federal transparency guidelines for marking, authenticating, and detecting AI-generated content; protect journalists, actors, and artists against AI-driven theft; and hold violators accountable for abuses.
“The bi-partisan COPIED Act I introduced with Senator Blackburn and Senator Heinrich will provide much-needed transparency around AI-generated content,” said Senator Cantwell. “The COPIED Act will also put creators, including local journalists, artists, and musicians, back in control of their content with a provenance and watermark process that I think is very much needed.”
The COPIED Act would require providers of AI tools used to generate creative or journalist content to allow owners of that content to attach provenance information to it and prohibits its removal, she said. The bill prohibits the unauthorized use of content with provenance information to train AI models or generate AI content.
“These measures give content owners — journalists, newspapers, artists, songwriters, and others — the ability to protect their work and set the terms of use for their content, including compensation,” said the news release.
The bill would also require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop guidelines and standards for content provenance information, watermarking, and synthetic content detection; authorize the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general to enforce the bill’s requirements; and prohibit tampering with or displaying AI provenance information, including internet platforms, search engines and social media companies.
The bi-partisan legislation is supported by SAG-AFTRA, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Recording Academy, National Music Publishers’ Association, Recording Industry Association of America, News/Media Alliance, National Newspaper Association, America’s Newspapers, Rebuild Local News, National Association of Broadcasters, Artists Rights Alliance, Human Artistry Campaign, Public Citizen, The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL), the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), and Music Creators North America (MCNA).
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