USA’s Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act)

1. Overview

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on July 11, 2024, sponsored the COPIED Act (S.4674) to counteract the spread of illicit content manipulation and AI-created deepfakes.  This bill seeks to grant rights to digital content creators, increase fake media detection, and impose transparency requirements for source(s) of content.

2. Scope of the Law

COPIED Act targets:

Synthetic Content Detection: It demands the creation of technologies that can detect AI-generated or altered media.

Content Provenance: It entails embedding watermarks or metadata to attribute the content’s source.

Creator Protection: It safeguards the artists, journalists, and other content creators from unapproved usage of their content in AI training sets.

Transparency: To make content generated by AI easily distinguishable, such that it is distinguishable from authentic media, it is transparent.

3. Key Clauses

NIST Guidelines: NIST is directed to engage with the USPTO and the United States Copyright Office when formulating standards for synthetic content identification, watermarking, and provenance. Watermarking Requirement: AI-created work must be marked with visible and/or invisible signs indicating it is synthetic.

Creator Consent: To avoid unauthorized use of copyrighted works by AI to train without explicit permission from the rights holders.

Tampering Prohibition: To criminalize, it erases or modifies provenance data included in digital content.

Enforcement: The legislation assigns enforcement power to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general for the Act provisions.

4. Fines and Enforcement

Civil Fines: Offenders could be fined, depending on how serious the offense was. Legal Remedies: Provides opportunities for individuals and organisations to obtain a remedy for law-breaking bad behaviour.

Regulatory Enforcement: The FTC has responsibility for monitoring compliance and taking enforcement action if required.

5. Comparison to Global Standards

The COPIED Act is consistent with global regulation standards for AI-generated content, like the European Union’s AI Act. It is more focused on creator rights and content origin, though. It gives more effectiveness to the paradigm of transparency and responsibility in the digital media landscape.

6.  Implications

For Content Creators: The COPIED Act ensures that authors, content creators, and writers of original works maintain authority over the usage of their work by AI systems.

For Platforms: It also mandates social media and content-sharing platforms to have in place mechanisms for identifying and labeling synthetic content.

For Developers: The act allows AI developers to acquire explicit consent before using copyrighted work in training data.

7. Future Outlook

One of the most important steps towards preserving digital content integrity is the COPIED Act. In addition, it guards authors from having their work exploited by AI technology. Its provisions are centered on encouraging responsibility and openness in the rapidly emerging artificial intelligence sector.