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AB 1836 was approved and filed as Chapter 258 of 2024, amending Civil Code section 3344.1. It establishes civil liability, with enumerated exceptions, for producing, distributing, or making available digital replicas of a deceased person’s voice or likeness in expressive audiovisual works or sound recordings without prior consent from the specified rights holders.
What changed
AB 1836 was approved and filed as Chapter 258 of 2024, amending Civil Code section 3344.1. It establishes civil liability, with enumerated exceptions, for producing, distributing, or making available digital replicas of a deceased person’s voice or likeness in expressive audiovisual works or sound recordings without prior consent from the specified rights holders.
Records signing and filing, not an enforcement case. Exceptions include news, public affairs and sports reporting; commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire or parody; qualifying documentary, historical or biographical representations; fleeting or incidental use; and advertising for such works. The documentary exception excludes uses intended to, and actually creating, a false impression that the person participated in a real recording. Term, registration, commercial-value, and other conditions appear in the original statute. This is not a universal ban on AI representations of deceased people.
Editorial research question
Editorial interpretation: institutional context in which the commercial value of deceased performers’ likenesses and voices is addressed by digital-replica rules, while exceptions preserve commentary, satire, and documentary expression.
This is an editorial interpretation or question, separate from factual statements.
Evidence & sources
AB 1836 was approved and filed as Chapter 258 of 2024, amending Civil Code section 3344.1. It establishes civil liability, with enumerated exceptions, for producing, distributing, or making available digital replicas of a deceased person’s voice or likeness in expressive audiovisual works or sound recordings without prior consent from the specified rights holders.
SRC-0211Lines 39–119: enacted text; especially 70–85 on digital-replica liability, exceptions, and definitions, and 91–105 on consent rights and duration.
California Legislative Information · EN · 2024-09-17
Case
Related documents
DOC-0199AB-1836: Use of likeness: digital replicaCite this record
ANTI-AI ARCHIVE. “California AB 1836 is signed and chaptered.” evt-0212. Include this page’s URL and your access date when citing.