Denmark Copyright Act Amendment, Proposed Deepfake Personal-Characteristics Right

Properties

kind: law
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: Denmark
mechanism: A proposed amendment to the Danish Copyright Act, notified to the European Commission, would bar making available to the public a realistic digitally generated imitation of a natural person's personal, physical characteristics (appearance and voice) without that person's consent, with protection lasting 50 years after death; a related provision would separately protect performers against realistic digital imitations. Exceptions apply to caricature, satire, parody, and pastiche. Enforcement would run through the EU Digital Services Act's notice-and-action takedown mechanism rather than a standalone Danish takedown regime.
status: proposed
owns: Addresses deepfakes through a copyright-adjacent personal-characteristics right (a direct consent gate over one's own voice and appearance) rather than the EU-wide horizontal disclosure duty in eu-ai-act-article-50-deepfake-disclosure; distinct from ny-digital-replica-contracts-act's entertainment-contracting focus by covering all public dissemination, and from mt-name-voice-likeness-property-act's transferable US property-right model by routing enforcement through the EU Digital Services Act's platform notice-and-action mechanism instead of private civil suits.
source: European Parliamentary Research Service, "The Danish approach to copyright and deepfakes: A model for the EU?" (PE 782.611, January 2026)
notes: As of the EPRS document's January 2026 publication, the draft had been notified through the EU technical-regulation information system (comment period through 3 February 2026) and was expected to enter into force in July 2026, a date that has now passed. Other 2026 secondary reporting (not independently confirmed against a primary Folketing source) indicates the timeline had earlier targeted 31 March 2026 before a snap Danish general election was called. This agent attempted to check retsinformation.dk and ft.dk directly for the bill's current status but both were unreachable (403) in this pass, and the web-search budget for the session was exhausted before a substitute could be run; whether the bill has since been adopted, is still pending, or was further delayed by the election is unconfirmed as of September 2026. Status is recorded as 'proposed' as the most conservative fit given that unresolved gap; if a future pass confirms adoption, this should move to 'enacted-pending' or 'in-effect' as appropriate.

Provenance

Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2026/782611/EPRS_ATA(2026)782611_EN.pdf

Properties

kind

law

target

voice-and-likeness

jurisdiction

Denmark

mechanism

A proposed amendment to the Danish Copyright Act, notified to the European Commission, would bar making available to the public a realistic digitally generated imitation of a natural person's personal, physical characteristics (appearance and voice) without that person's consent, with protection lasting 50 years after death; a related provision would separately protect performers against realistic digital imitations. Exceptions apply to caricature, satire, parody, and pastiche. Enforcement would run through the EU Digital Services Act's notice-and-action takedown mechanism rather than a standalone Danish takedown regime.

status

proposed

owns

Addresses deepfakes through a copyright-adjacent personal-characteristics right (a direct consent gate over one's own voice and appearance) rather than the EU-wide horizontal disclosure duty in eu-ai-act-article-50-deepfake-disclosure; distinct from ny-digital-replica-contracts-act's entertainment-contracting focus by covering all public dissemination, and from mt-name-voice-likeness-property-act's transferable US property-right model by routing enforcement through the EU Digital Services Act's platform notice-and-action mechanism instead of private civil suits.

source

European Parliamentary Research Service, "The Danish approach to copyright and deepfakes: A model for the EU?" (PE 782.611, January 2026)

notes

As of the EPRS document's January 2026 publication, the draft had been notified through the EU technical-regulation information system (comment period through 3 February 2026) and was expected to enter into force in July 2026, a date that has now passed. Other 2026 secondary reporting (not independently confirmed against a primary Folketing source) indicates the timeline had earlier targeted 31 March 2026 before a snap Danish general election was called. This agent attempted to check retsinformation.dk and ft.dk directly for the bill's current status but both were unreachable (403) in this pass, and the web-search budget for the session was exhausted before a substitute could be run; whether the bill has since been adopted, is still pending, or was further delayed by the election is unconfirmed as of September 2026. Status is recorded as 'proposed' as the most conservative fit given that unresolved gap; if a future pass confirms adoption, this should move to 'enacted-pending' or 'in-effect' as appropriate.