Read the AI Clause Before You Sign

There is a paragraph in performer contracts now that did not meaningfully exist five years ago, and it is worth more than the fee.

It is the one about digital replicas.

A digital replica is a version of you that a production can use without you being there. It can be built from a body scan on set, from a voice session, or from existing footage, and once it exists it can be placed in scenes you never shot and made to say lines you never read.

The technology is not the argument anymore. The argument is entirely about consent and compensation, and both of those live in the contract.

Union agreements set a floor. A production covered by one must get informed consent, which means telling you specifically what the replica will be used for, and must pay separately for that use rather than folding it into your day rate.

The word doing the work there is informed. Consent to a described, bounded use is meaningful. A blanket grant is not, and the difference is legible in the language.

If a clause says the production may use your likeness for any and all purposes, in perpetuity, in all media now known or hereafter devised, that is not consent to a use. That is a transfer of the asset.

This is the part that catches people.

A great deal of work, including commercials, industrials, indie features and a lot of what is shot for social platforms, is not covered by any agreement. In those contracts there is no requirement of informed consent, no separate compensation, and no limit on duration or medium unless you negotiate one in.

The budget is smaller, the paperwork is thinner, and the rights grab is frequently larger. Read those the most carefully, not the least.

“The fee is for today. The likeness clause is for the rest of your life.”

What specifically will the replica be used for. A production that cannot answer in one sentence has not decided, which means the clause is written to cover everything.

For how long, and in what media. Bounded beats unbounded. A term of years is negotiable even when people tell you it is not.

What is the separate payment. If the answer is that it is included in your rate, you are licensing an asset for free.

What happens to the scan after the production. Deletion, storage, who holds it. Get it in writing, because an undeleted scan is a permanent option on you.

Do not sign at the table. Every legitimate production will let you take the contract away and read it, and a production that will not is telling you something useful.

Strike what you do not agree to and send it back. People do this constantly and it is not rude, it is the process. The worst realistic outcome is that they say no.

If you are not yet in the union, understand that membership is what puts a floor under all of this, and there are three doors in.

And this is not only a performer problem. Your face is now worth stealing generally, on and off a set.