Montana Name, Voice, and Visual Likeness Property Rights Act (HB 513, Chapter 685 of 2025)

Properties

kind: law
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: US, Montana
mechanism: Creates a property right, for Montana residents (or those domiciled in Montana at death), in their name, voice, and visual likeness that is freely transferable, licensable, and descendible, does not expire on death, and is exclusive to the individual during their lifetime and to their rights-holders for 20 years after death. A person is liable for actual damages plus profits from unauthorized use if, without consent, they (a) distribute a tool or service with actual and specific knowledge that its primary purpose is producing unauthorized digital voice or visual depictions of a particular identified individual for commercial use, or (b) intentionally publish or distribute an unauthorized digital voice or visual depiction for commercial use with actual and specific knowledge it is unauthorized. Exemptions apply to news-gathering, commentary/criticism/parody, an individual playing themself in an audiovisual work (unless intended to and does create a false impression of an authentic recording), and fleeting or negligible use. Civil actions must be brought within 4 years of discovery.
status: in-effect
owns: Frames the right as a transferable property right (like IP) rather than tn-elvis-act's right-of-publicity tort model, and conditions distributor/tool-provider liability on 'actual and specific knowledge' of primary unauthorized purpose rather than Tennessee's broader developer/distributor standard; remedy is actual damages plus profits, with no statutory minimum damages figure in the enrolled text.
source: Montana Name, Voice, and Visual Likeness Property Rights Act (HB 513, Chapter 685 of 2025)
notes: Enrolled bill text (Chapter 685, 69th Montana Legislature, 2025) read directly; effective date confirmed in Section 3 as 'This act is effective January 1, 2026.' Several secondary tracker sites (recordinglaw.com, digitalpolicyalert) report a flat statutory damages figure of $50,000 per violation; that figure does not appear anywhere in the enrolled text, which instead specifies liability for 'the actual damages suffered by the person, plus any profits from the unauthorized use.' The 20-year post-mortem duration is confirmed verbatim in the text. Signed into law in 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, this predates the 2026-07-27 window; included because it is a comprehensive, currently in-effect voice-and-likeness property-rights statute with no equivalent tracked entity in the baseline, and because the primary-source figures materially correct what secondary trackers report.

Provenance

Source: https://archive.legmt.gov/content/Sessions/69th/Contractor_index/CH0685.pdf

Properties

kind

law

target

voice-and-likeness

jurisdiction

US, Montana

mechanism

Creates a property right, for Montana residents (or those domiciled in Montana at death), in their name, voice, and visual likeness that is freely transferable, licensable, and descendible, does not expire on death, and is exclusive to the individual during their lifetime and to their rights-holders for 20 years after death. A person is liable for actual damages plus profits from unauthorized use if, without consent, they (a) distribute a tool or service with actual and specific knowledge that its primary purpose is producing unauthorized digital voice or visual depictions of a particular identified individual for commercial use, or (b) intentionally publish or distribute an unauthorized digital voice or visual depiction for commercial use with actual and specific knowledge it is unauthorized. Exemptions apply to news-gathering, commentary/criticism/parody, an individual playing themself in an audiovisual work (unless intended to and does create a false impression of an authentic recording), and fleeting or negligible use. Civil actions must be brought within 4 years of discovery.

status

in-effect

owns

Frames the right as a transferable property right (like IP) rather than tn-elvis-act's right-of-publicity tort model, and conditions distributor/tool-provider liability on 'actual and specific knowledge' of primary unauthorized purpose rather than Tennessee's broader developer/distributor standard; remedy is actual damages plus profits, with no statutory minimum damages figure in the enrolled text.

source

Montana Name, Voice, and Visual Likeness Property Rights Act (HB 513, Chapter 685 of 2025)

notes

Enrolled bill text (Chapter 685, 69th Montana Legislature, 2025) read directly; effective date confirmed in Section 3 as 'This act is effective January 1, 2026.' Several secondary tracker sites (recordinglaw.com, digitalpolicyalert) report a flat statutory damages figure of $50,000 per violation; that figure does not appear anywhere in the enrolled text, which instead specifies liability for 'the actual damages suffered by the person, plus any profits from the unauthorized use.' The 20-year post-mortem duration is confirmed verbatim in the text. Signed into law in 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, this predates the 2026-07-27 window; included because it is a comprehensive, currently in-effect voice-and-likeness property-rights statute with no equivalent tracked entity in the baseline, and because the primary-source figures materially correct what secondary trackers report.