Washington Personality Rights Act, Forged Digital Likeness Amendment (SSB 5886 / Chapter 69, Laws of 2026)

Properties

kind: law
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: US, Washington
mechanism: Amends Washington's existing Personality Rights Act (a property right in name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness) to add 'forged digital likeness,' a digitally altered image or audio, persistent or transmitted in real time, that misrepresents a person and could deceive others into believing it is genuine. Infringement carries a statutory civil penalty plus actual damages, injunctions, destruction of infringing material, and attorneys' fees.
status: in-effect
owns: Extends a pre-existing state property-right statute (not a right-of-publicity statute like Tennessee's) to AI-generated audio and video specifically, including real-time forgeries; distinct remedy structure from tn-elvis-act's right-of-publicity model.
source: Washington State Legislature, SB 5886 bill summary
notes: Signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson March 16, 2026; effective June 11, 2026, per the official bill-summary page. The $3,000 civil-penalty figure and the 'persistent or real-time' definition wording are drawn from secondary legal-alert summaries (Cooley, Crowell & Moring), not independently confirmed against the verbatim enrolled bill text; treat as approximate pending primary-text confirmation. Predates the 2026-07-11 window; included as backfill given the catalogue's current 2-entity baseline.

kind: law
target: voice-and-likeness
jurisdiction: US, Washington
mechanism: Amends Washington's existing Personality Rights Act (a property right in name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness) to add 'forged digital likeness,' a digitally altered image or audio, persistent or transmitted in real time, that misrepresents a person and could deceive others into believing it is genuine. Infringement carries a statutory civil penalty plus actual damages, injunctions, destruction of infringing material, and attorneys' fees.
status: in-effect
owns: Extends a pre-existing state property-right statute (not a right-of-publicity statute like Tennessee's) to AI-generated audio and video specifically, including real-time forgeries; distinct remedy structure from tn-elvis-act's right-of-publicity model.
source: Washington State Legislature, SB 5886 bill summary
notes: Signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson March 16, 2026; effective June 11, 2026, per the official bill-summary page. The $3,000 civil-penalty figure and the 'persistent or real-time' definition wording are drawn from secondary legal-alert summaries (Cooley, Crowell & Moring), not independently confirmed against the verbatim enrolled bill text; treat as approximate pending primary-text confirmation. Predates the 2026-07-11 window; included as backfill given the catalogue's current 2-entity baseline.