Dutch citizens should own copyright to their bodies and faces, says government

A proposal to grant Dutch citizens copyright ownership of their body, face and voice has garnered support among the government. The aim is to prevent AI-generated deepfakes from being created and circulated on the internet.

Copyright legislation to be expanded in the Netherlands

The GroenLinks-PvdA, VVD, NSC and D66 parties, which hold a majority in the House of Representatives, have submitted a proposal to give citizens copyright over their own person. This follows the example set by Denmark, which was the first European country to announce this type of legislation.

Using AI, people create video and voice clips of others doing and saying things they haven’t done or said. "Protection against deepfakes is currently fragmented," Diego Guerrero Obando, a lawyer specialising in intellectual property, told NOS. "This can be done through, among other things, portrait rights, privacy legislation, and tort law." 

Expanding the Copyright Act to include voice and appearance is a good initiative to protect residents. The Dutch parties also want to impose stricter punishments for large tech companies that don’t do enough to prevent the circulation of deepfakes on their platforms. 

Spike in fraud using deepfakes in recent years

While using deepfakes to take over someone else’s bank account and commit identity theft is already punishable in the Netherlands, it is still occurring more frequently. Digital identity platform Signicat recently revealed that the number of deepfake fraud attempts has grown by 2.137 percent in the past three years. 

Slanderous or pornographic deepfakes are also illegal under current legislation, and both the creator and the platform on which this type of content is shared can be found liable. Expanding the copyright will help individuals affected, but according to Obando, it will still be difficult for victims to take action against big tech companies or an unknown person.