The COPIED Act (which stands for "Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act") is a bill which is currently pending in the United States Congress. It is sponsored by Senators Marsha Blackburn, Maria Cantwell and Martin Heinrich.
The reason for this bill is protection for media, music, and journalism from being faked by artificial intelligence. It allows creators to put a digital watermark on their work called "content provenance information" to differentiate between the original and a deepfake copy. This watermark cannot be removed from the original work unless it is for a very specific reason related to improving digital security. The watermark proves that the original work is, in fact, the original and not a copy or fake created by another source.
The Act builds on an Executive Order issued by President Biden in October of 2023 that instructed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to come up with guidelines, testing, and resources regarding artificial intelligence. In turn, NIST began the U.S. AI Safety Institute to oversee the work that needs to be done.
Why Is Digital Protection Needed?
The use of artificial intelligence is growing each day across all industries. In many situations it can be a helpful tool to create or accentuate an artistic or written work.
The problem comes when a musician or artist or writer develops an original item and then artificial intelligence makes another one which is so similar that people can't tell the difference. How can the creator keep ownership of the item? How are royalties calculated?
On a basic level it is a difficult question but it becomes even more complicated when you add in the fact the AI technology is always changing.
Many artistic groups such as SAG-AFTRA and the Recording Industry Association of America are supporting the COPIED Act. It's now in Congress' court to move it forward.
Related Resources
- Legal (and Moral) Issues in AI-Generated Content (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- AI and the Law: Top 7 Recent Developments (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
- Who Owns the Creation of an Artificial Intelligence? (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
