SAG-AFTRA 2025 Commercials Contract, Digital Replica Consent Requirement

Properties

kind: standard
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: SAG-AFTRA (industry)
mechanism: Requires a producer to obtain a performer's 'clear and conspicuous' consent, based on a reasonably specific description of the intended use of the Digital Replica, before creating or using one; consent is granted either through a jointly drafted Digital Replica Rider appended to the performer's employment contract or in a separate writing signed by the performer.
status: active
owns: A collectively bargained digital-replica consent mechanism, enforceable through union grievance and arbitration machinery rather than civil or criminal court, distinct from every tracked state law (which apply regardless of union status) and from every tracked provider-policy row (which are unilateral platform terms of service).
source: Davis+Gilbert LLP, "Importance of Digital Replica Consents Under the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract"
notes: Contract effective 1 April 2025. The Digital Replica Rider was jointly drafted by SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Policy Committee and was not yet available when the contract launched; it was finalized afterward. The quoted phrases appear in matching form across three independent law-firm summaries of the same underlying contract text; the primary SAG-AFTRA contract PDF and Digital Replica Rider document returned 403/404 errors to automated fetch in this pass and were not directly confirmed. Considered and rejected for this same slot: a UK Equity union agreement on digital replicas. As of this check, Equity's public position ('no more consent-by-contract digital scanning') is an advocacy demand, not a signed agreement term, and its current BBC deal reportedly contains only a holding clause pending future industry-wide AI terms, so no verifiable in-force Equity provision was found.

Provenance

Source: https://www.dglaw.com/importance-of-digital-replica-consents-under-the-sag-aftra-commercials-contract/

Properties

kind

standard

target

voice-and-likeness

jurisdiction

SAG-AFTRA (industry)

mechanism

Requires a producer to obtain a performer's 'clear and conspicuous' consent, based on a reasonably specific description of the intended use of the Digital Replica, before creating or using one; consent is granted either through a jointly drafted Digital Replica Rider appended to the performer's employment contract or in a separate writing signed by the performer.

status

active

owns

A collectively bargained digital-replica consent mechanism, enforceable through union grievance and arbitration machinery rather than civil or criminal court, distinct from every tracked state law (which apply regardless of union status) and from every tracked provider-policy row (which are unilateral platform terms of service).

source

Davis+Gilbert LLP, "Importance of Digital Replica Consents Under the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract"

notes

Contract effective 1 April 2025. The Digital Replica Rider was jointly drafted by SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Policy Committee and was not yet available when the contract launched; it was finalized afterward. The quoted phrases appear in matching form across three independent law-firm summaries of the same underlying contract text; the primary SAG-AFTRA contract PDF and Digital Replica Rider document returned 403/404 errors to automated fetch in this pass and were not directly confirmed. Considered and rejected for this same slot: a UK Equity union agreement on digital replicas. As of this check, Equity's public position ('no more consent-by-contract digital scanning') is an advocacy demand, not a signed agreement term, and its current BBC deal reportedly contains only a holding clause pending future industry-wide AI terms, so no verifiable in-force Equity provision was found.