Denmark Wants You to Copyright Yourself. It Might Be the Only Way To Stop Deepfakes

“Human beings can be run through the digital copy machine and be misused for all sorts of purposes and I’m not willing to accept that,” Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt recently told The Guardian after Denmark introduced an amendment to its copyright legislation so people could own their own likeness. “In the bill we agree and 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.”

The Danish culture minister is right. We need to stop this problem decisively. Deepfakes are a serious problem—one that is fundamentally altering our perception of reality. People are getting bullied, coerced into doing things against their will, and even framed for crimes they didn’t commit. Stopping the software will not work. That ship sailed a long time ago. And normal people don’t have the resources to fight in court for a deepfake to be taken down.

The answer, like the Danish government has done, is to include personal likeness in copyright law. The proposal establishes legal definitions for unauthorized digital reproductions, specifically targeting “very realistic digital representation of a person, including their appearance and voice.” The Danish administration intends to introduce the legislative proposal for public input ahead of the summer parliamentary break, with formal submission planned for autumn.