⚖️ Denmark may allow people to copyright their likeness

Denmark Moves to Copyright Human Identity to Combat Deepfakes

Denmark is preparing to overhaul its copyright laws to give individuals legal ownership over their face, voice, and body, a world-first response to the rise of deepfakes. Backed by cross-party consensus, the new legislation will explicitly assert that these personal attributes are protected against unauthorized AI-generated reproductions. Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said the proposal sends a clear message: “Everybody has the right to their own body, voice and facial features.

A Global Outlier — or a New Norm in AI Law?

While the U.S. wrestles with proposals that would strip states of the power to regulate AI for a decade, Denmark is signalling that personal identity deserves codified protection in the AI era. By framing these traits as copyrightable, the law could allow Danes to sue anyone, including tech companies, who use their likeness without consent, even in training data. This move sets a precedent that could ripple across Europe and prompt the establishment of new global norms for AI ethics, data training rights, and user consent.

Prepare for Consent as a Compliance Layer

Startups that train models or generate audio/video content should track this development closely. Denmark’s proposal could foreshadow stricter international regimes that require explicit, auditable consent for using biometric data, including scraped faces or voices from the open web. Whether you’re building avatars, clones, or customer-facing chat agents, assume that identity-based data will soon require explicit licensing. If your AI product depends on synthetic humans, now’s the time to future-proof your stack against rights-based legal challenges.

In addition to our newsletter we offer 60+ free legal templates for companies in the UK, Canada and the US. These include employment contracts, investment agreements and more

Newsletter supported by:

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up to start learning.