Danish Bill Proposes Using Copyright Law to Combat Deepfakes

By /

Luca Schirru

Recently, a Danish Bill has been making headlines by addressing issues related to deepfake through a rather uncommon approach: copyright. As stated to The Guardian,1 the Danish Minister of Culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, explained that they “are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice and their own facial features, which is apparently not how the current law is protecting people against generative AI.” According to CNN,2 the minister believes that the “proposed law would help protect artists, public figures, and ordinary people from digital identity theft.”

Items 8, 10, and 19 of the proposal include some of the most substantive changes to the law. Among other measures, Item 8 proposes adding a new § 65(a), requiring the prior consent of performers and performing artists to digitally generate imitations of them and make these available to the public, establishing protection for a term of 50 years after their death. Item 10 introduces a new § 73(a), focusing on “realistic digitally generated imitations of a natural person’s personal, physical characteristics,” requiring prior consent from the person being imitated before such imitations can be made available to the public. This exclusive right would also last for 50 years after the death of the imitated person and would not apply to uses such as caricature, satire, parody, pastiche, criticism, or similar purposes.

It could be argued that this approach is uncommon because several countries, including those in the European Union, already have laws regulating personality rights and, more specifically, personal data. Copyright is known for regulating the use of creative expressions of the human mind, not the image, voice, or likeness of a person when considered individually, i.e., outside the context of an artistic performance.

According to CNN “Engel-Schmidt says he has secured cross-party support for the bill, and he believes it will be passed this fall.” 

A machine-translated version of the Proposal is below: 

Proposal  for  Act amending the Copyright Act  (Introducing performance protection and protection against digitally generated imitations, etc.)3

§ 1
The Copyright Act, cf. Consolidated Act No. 1093 of August 20, 2023, as amended by Act No. 676 of June 11, 2024, is amended as follows:

  1. Throughout the Act, after “performing artists” insert: “or performers,” after “performing artist” insert: “or performer,” after “a performing artist’s” insert: “or a performer’s,” and after “performing artists'” insert: “or performers’.”
  2. In § 47, subsection 2, after “§ 55 c” insert: “§ 67 a, subsection 3.”
  3. In § 47, after subsection 3, insert a new subsection:
     “Subsection 4. The Minister of Culture may set regulations regarding digital communication with the board, including the use of specific IT systems, particular digital formats and forms, and the applicable national eID solution or similar.”
  4. In § 65, subsection 1, after “work” insert: “or a performer’s artistic performance,” and after “artist” insert: “or performer.”
  5. In § 65, subsection 2, after “performance” insert: “or presentation.”
  6. In § 65, subsection 3, after “a performance” insert: “or presentation.”
  7. In § 65, subsection 4, after “a performance” insert: “or presentation.”
  8. After § 65, before the heading preceding § 66, insert:
     “§ 65 a. Realistic digitally generated imitations of a performing artist’s or performer’s artistic performance must not be made available to the public without the consent of the performing artist or performer.
     Subsection 2. Protection under subsection 1 lasts until 50 years have elapsed after the death of the performing artist or performer.
     Subsection 3. Provisions in § 2 subsections 3 and 4, §§ 3, 11, 13, 13 a, 16 a, 16 c, 16 f, 17-17 b, § 17 c subsections 2, 3 and 4, §§ 17 d-17 e, § 18 subsections 1 and 2, § 19 subsections 1 and 2, and §§ 21-23, 24 b, 25, 25 a, 27, 28, 30 a, 33, 34, 35, § 47 subsections 1 and 2, §§ 49, 50-57, 58 a, 61 and 62 shall apply correspondingly to realistic digital imitations of performing artists’ performances or performers’ artistic presentations.”
  9. In § 68, subsection 1, after “§ 65, subsections 2-4,” insert: “§ 65 a, subsections 1-2.”
  10. After § 73, before the heading preceding § 74, insert:
     “Protection against realistic digitally generated imitations of personal characteristics
     § 73 a. Realistic digitally generated imitations of a natural person’s personal, physical characteristics must not be made available to the public without the consent of the imitated person.
     Subsection 2. Subsection 1 does not apply to imitations primarily intended as caricature, satire, parody, pastiche, criticism of power, societal criticism, or similar unless the imitation constitutes misinformation likely to seriously harm the rights or substantial interests of others.
     Subsection 3. Protection under subsection 1 lasts until 50 years have elapsed after the death of the imitated person.”
  11. In § 76, subsection 1, item 3, amend “§§ 72-75,” to: “§§ 72, 73, 74, and 75.”
  12. In § 77, subsection 1, amend “§§ 65-71,” to: “§§ 65 and 66-71.”
  13. In § 83, subsection 1, after “or negligently violates” insert: “§ 65 a or.”
  14. In § 84, subsection 1, after “§§ 65-71” insert: “and § 73 a.”
  15. In § 84, subsection 1, insert after item 3 as a new item:
     “4) removed from the medium on which it was made available or”
     Current item 4 becomes item 5.
  16. In § 86, after subsection 1, insert a new subsection:
     “Subsection 2. The provision in § 65 a applies to imitations of persons who are nationals of or resident in a country within the European Economic Area.”
     Current subsections 2-9 become subsections 3-10.
  17. In § 86, subsection 9, second sentence, renumbered to subsection 10, second sentence, amend “Notwithstanding subsection 2” to: “Notwithstanding subsection 3.”
  18. In § 86, subsection 9, third sentence, renumbered to subsection 10, third sentence, amend “subsections 1-4” to: “subsection 1 and subsections 3-5.”
  19. After § 86, before the heading preceding § 87, insert:
     “Special provision on protection against digitally generated imitations of personal characteristics
     § 86 a. The provision in § 73 a applies to imitations of all physical persons, including foreign nationals.”

§ 2
 This Act shall enter into force on March 31, 2026.

§ 3
Subsection 1. This Act does not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
Subsection 2. § 1 may be put fully or partially into effect for Greenland by Royal Decree, with adjustments as required by Greenlandic circumstances.

Notes:

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