Tennessee - ELVIS Act (Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security Act) (2024)

Signed on 21 March 2024 and effective 1 July 2024, the Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security Act updates Tennessee's Personal Rights Protection Act, historically focused on the music and entertainment industry. It adds explicit protection for an individual's voice as a protected property right, alongside name, image and likeness, responding directly to generative-AI voice cloning and deepfake simulation.

The Act makes a person liable for the unauthorized use or simulation of another person's voice or likeness for commercial purposes, and, notably, for making available a technology, service or tool whose primary purpose is the unauthorized reproduction of a person's voice or likeness. Remedies include civil liability for damages and injunctive relief, and certain violations carry criminal exposure as a Class A misdemeanour. Both individuals and the state can pursue enforcement.