A federal replica bill was reintroduced, not enacted

The figure or the record

Senator Chris Coons reintroduced the NO FAKES Act, formally the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2025, in the Senate on 9 April 2025 as S.1367, with Senators Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar and Thom Tillis as original cosponsors. The bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee the same day. As of retrieval on 16 September 2026, Congress.gov's own tracker lists the bill's status as 'Introduced', the first of five stages before a bill becomes law; it has not been reported out of committee, passed either chamber, or signed. This record does not assert, and the bill's own status page does not show, that it has passed.

What the documents establish

The bill's Congressional Research Service summary, carried on its own page, describes a federal intellectual-property right letting an individual or rights holder authorise use of their voice or visual likeness in a digital replica; the right is not assignable during the person's lifetime, is licensable, and does not expire at death. It creates civil liability for prohibited conduct such as distributing an unauthorised replica, exempts categories of protected speech including news, sports broadcasts, comment and satire, and establishes a notice-and-takedown process modelled on existing platform-liability law. SAG-AFTRA's own statement on the reintroduction day frames the bill explicitly with 'if passed' language and names the state laws it says it would leave standing.

Scope and caveats

The summary states the bill would expressly preempt state digital-replica laws, with an exception preserving causes of action under state statute or common law already in existence as of 2 January 2025, a cutoff that would grandfather Tennessee's ELVIS Act and California's AB 2602 and AB 1836 but not necessarily a state law enacted afterward. As an introduced bill, none of its provisions currently bind anyone; the summary describes what the text proposes, not an operative right. SAG-AFTRA's statement is an advocacy organisation's characterisation of the bill's purpose, not independent confirmation of its legal effect.

What to watch

Editorially, the marker to watch is committee action: whether the Senate Judiciary Committee reports the bill out, since a bill referred to committee in April 2025 that has not moved by September 2026 is, on this record, stalled rather than advancing, and any claim that a federal replica right now exists should be checked against the bill's current status rather than its introduction date.

• Has S.1367 been reported out of the Judiciary Committee since this record's retrieval date, and if so, with what amendments?
• Does a cited state protection predate or postdate the bill's 2 January 2025 preemption cutoff?
• Is a described 'federal replica right' sourced to the bill's proposed text or to advocacy framing of what it would do if enacted?

An introduced bill is a proposal, not a right, and this record treats S.1367 accordingly: as a text with defined terms and a stated status, not as law a vertical-drama contract can currently rely on.