Who is impacted?

Every day, creators and app users are unknowingly giving away their likeness and content without fully understanding the implications. Social media users, artists, influencers, and creators often click "accept" on terms of service without realizing they’re granting companies perpetual, unrestricted rights to use their images, voices, and creations. 

Chinese-owned apps like TikTok, CapCut, and their parent company, Bytedance, are among the platforms that embed these hidden licensing clauses in their terms, granting sweeping rights over your likeness, sometimes for life.

Many are pressured or manipulated into agreeing through unclear language, limited time, and lack of transparency. 

What is at stake?
If we don’t change the laws, these companies will continue to profit off our likeness, using our images, voices, and content in ways we never intended. Our likeness will be used forever, without our consent or control, even after we pass away.

The exploitation of personal intellectual property can damage legacies and rob creators of their right to control how their image is used. We must ensure our rights are protected and respected.

Why is now the time to act?
With the rapid growth of digital platforms, AI technology, and online content creation, it's more important than ever to protect our likeness and intellectual property. If we don't act now, we risk losing control over our own image.

 

What needs to change?

Explicit, Informed Consent: No hidden or “sandwiched” licenses. All uses of a person’s likeness, image, voice, or content must have clear, informed consent.

Creator-Controlled Duration: Creators should control how long their likeness can be used, with the option to renew or renegotiate licenses.

Posthumous Control: The creator’s family or heirs should maintain control over the likeness after death, similar to copyright inheritance.

Comprehensive Protection: This applies to all uses—photos, videos, merchandise, advertising, AI replicas, and more. No loopholes or exploitative contracts.

No Perpetual or Hidden Licenses: Companies cannot sneak in perpetual licenses that extend forever or use vague terms to bypass consent.

Strong Anti-Circumvention Clauses: Platforms and companies cannot bypass these protections by using third parties or reclassifying individuals as “partners,” “ambassadors,” “affiliates,” “users,” “collaborators,” or other labels.

Likeness as Permanent, Non-Public Domain Copyright: Your likeness will be protected as intellectual property, with no risk of it ever entering the public domain, unlike traditional copyrights that eventually expire and become free for public use.

Stronger Than the NO FAKES Act: The NO FAKES Act, currently in Congress, only covers digital replicas. Our proposed law goes beyond that, offering broader protection for all forms of likeness and intellectual property use, ensuring creators have control over how their image is used in any medium or form.

Sign this petition to demand that Congress pass legislation that puts our identity and legacy back where they belong—in our hands.

Protect My Likeness (@protectmylikeness) • Instagram photos and videos