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Routes: Blue Data Law · Digital Rights
The Data Hook
You don't have to be famous for AI to copy you. A cloned voice on a robocall, a face lifted into a fake endorsement, a "digital replica" trained on your photos — California law treats your likeness as property, and in 2025 the rules got sharper. The question is no longer whether you're protected; it's whether you can prove the copy and move fast.
What California Already Protects
California recognizes a right of publicity in two places. Civil Code section 3344 protects a living person's name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness from commercial use without written consent — with statutory damages, actual damages, profits, and attorney's fees available. Civil Code section 3344.1 creates a separate post-mortem right that can survive up to 70 years after death, where the person was domiciled in California and their identity had commercial value. These existed long before generative AI — and they apply to AI outputs that use a real person's identity to sell something.
The New AI Rules (2024-2025)
California layered AI-specific protections on top. AB 1836, effective January 1, 2025, amended section 3344.1 to bar producing, distributing, or exploiting a digital replica of a deceased personality's voice or likeness for commercial use without the estate's consent — with liability of $10,000 or actual damages, plus exceptions for news, satire, scholarship, and documentary use. A companion law (AB 2602) lets performers void contract terms that hand over digital-replica rights without specific, informed consent. And at the federal level, the bipartisan NO FAKES Act was reintroduced on April 9, 2025, aiming to create a nationwide right against unauthorized AI replicas of anyone's voice or likeness.
What to Do If Your Likeness Is Cloned
Move like it's evidence, because it is. Screenshot and screen-record the use with the URL and date; save the original photos or recordings the AI likely trained on; note where the replica appeared and who profited. Do not engage the poster — document. The strongest publicity cases are won by the person who preserved the before-and-after and acted before the content spread. A free Blue Data Law consult reviews whether your facts fit section 3344, the new digital-replica rules, or both.
Blue Data Law — free consult | Michael Benavides, Esq., CA Bar No. 270714 | 707-362-4166 | attorneymichaelbenavides.com
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING. Blue Data Law is a trade name of the law practice of Michael Benavides, Esq., California State Bar No. 270714. General information only — not legal advice; no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this. Statutes and bills cited are as of mid-2026 (Civil Code sections 3344 and 3344.1; AB 1836 and AB 2602, eff. Jan 1, 2025; NO FAKES Act, reintroduced 2025) — verify current status, as legislation changes. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
