Denmark wants to grant copyright over face and voice to tackle the rise of deepfakes. In Brazil, despite existing legal protections, there is still no clear response to the manipulation and exploitation of personal image in the digital environment.
Denmark recently introduced a legislative proposal aimed at granting individuals copyright over their own identity, including face, voice, image, and other elements that make up a person’s individuality.
Although unusual at first glance, the measure represents a concrete response to one of today’s greatest challenges: the indiscriminate use of deepfakes and the legal difficulty in effectively curbing them.
According to a report by Fast Company Brasil, the Danish proposal creates a legal protection that would allow anyone to hold copyright over themselves, establishing clearer barriers to unauthorized use of their image, especially in digital environments easily manipulated by artificial intelligence.
The Guardian highlighted that this new legislation is a way to combat the growing threat of deepfakes, giving individuals the legal power to claim, control, and monetize the use of their own characteristics.
But what exactly are deepfakes? It is a technology based on artificial intelligence capable of creating realistic videos, audio, or images of people without their participation or consent. With just a few clicks and minimal data (voice, face, gestures), software can simulate speech and behaviors almost indistinguishable from reality.
In Brazil, the use of deepfakes already raises legal concerns. Although there is no specific criminal classification, practices involving deepfakes may fall under crimes such as ideological falsehood or offenses against honor. There is even a 2023 bill (PL 1.272/2023) pending in the Senate that proposes adding Article 308-A to the Penal Code, criminalizing the alteration of video or audio files with intent to deceive or harm someone, especially through AI.
The Danish proposal goes further: it creates an autonomous liability mechanism of a copyright nature, beyond the civil or criminal measures currently available. The logic is clear—if someone’s image and voice can be captured, manipulated, and monetized, it is only fair that this person has legal control and ownership over such attributes, similar to classic copyright rights.
This protection becomes even more relevant in times when facial biometrics, voice, iris, and even fingerprints are used as authentication passwords and signatures. Physical and vocal identity has ceased to be merely a personal characteristic and has become an asset with economic value.
Artists, models, presenters, and other public figures already commercialize their image and voice as economic assets. But even anonymous individuals are exposed to improper and viral uses, potentially harmful.
On the internet, various platforms allow quick monetization of content, including falsified material. In this context, anyone can become, without consent, the protagonist of a video, advertisement, or parody, generating profit for third parties.
In Brazil, image protection is already provided for in the Federal Constitution, Article 5, item X, which states that “privacy, private life, honor, and image of individuals are inviolable, ensuring the right to compensation for material or moral damages resulting from their violation.”
Additionally, the Civil Code enshrines personality rights as inalienable and non-waivable (Art. 11) and expressly limits the disclosure of image without consent (Art. 20). Since 1998, the Copyright Law (Law No. 9.610/98) protects intellectual works but does not currently provide for the protection of image or voice as autonomous creative expressions of the individual.
The General Data Protection Law (Law No. 13.709/18) addresses the protection of sensitive personal data, including biometrics, but does not expressly cover the creation or manipulation of unauthorized digital representations, nor does it regulate specific redress mechanisms for such practices.
The Danish proposal is therefore innovative in proposing a legal equivalence between the use of someone’s image/voice and a work protected by copyright.
In Brazil, image has a highly personal nature, linked to human dignity and individual autonomy. It is an absolute, non-transferable, and non-economic right that, unlike an intellectual work, cannot be licensed, inherited, or assigned.
Adopting a model that recognizes both personal and economic aspects of identity would require specific legislative changes and legal debate on issues such as the possibility of assignment, post-mortem transferability, ownership in group portraits, and impacts on freedom of expression, among others.
However, the spread of manipulated content and the speed at which it circulates online challenge the effectiveness of current legal mechanisms. Brazil’s normative response, dispersed among the Constitution, Civil Code, copyright law, and data protection law, often fails to provide effective protection.
The Danish proposal signals that legal systems will need to reinvent themselves in the face of new technological realities, and Brazilian lawmakers must consider recognizing image as a legal asset worthy of protection not only morally but also economically.
Fernanda Regina Negro de Oliveira Maluf, Partner specializing at Ernesto Borges Law Firm, working in strategic litigation and advisory. University Professor. Specialist in Business Law (FGV) and Corporate Law (Insper).
Autor: Fernanda Regina Negro de Oliveira • email: fernanda.oliveira@ernestoborges.com.br
