Image rights protection for actors and media talent

What is usually at stake

For actors and presenters, the assets are personal and portable. Likeness and voice are the obvious ones, but so are the name and any professional pseudonym, press and junket footage, stills from productions, and the character imagery that audiences associate with a performance. Increasingly there is a digital double as well: a scanned or synthesised version of a face and voice that can be reused long after a shoot has finished.

Where the risk sits

Media work creates exposure at both ends, during production and years afterwards:

• Digital doubles and AI likenesses used beyond the term, territory or purpose the performer agreed to.
• Deepfake advertising putting words in an actor's mouth in a brand campaign they never joined.
• Clips and stills used commercially well outside the licence granted, including after a contract ends.
• Character imagery on unofficial merchandise, from prints and figures to clothing.
• Fake accounts and impersonation built on press imagery and public appearances.

Rights outlive the release

A film or series does not stop being used when it leaves cinemas. It moves through streaming windows, re-releases, format changes and new markets, and each of those can sit inside or outside what was originally agreed. The same is true of promotional material, which is often shot and cleared quickly and then reused for years. Set out the limits at the point of agreement, and there is far less to argue about later.

Where the commercial upside is

Clear rights make appearances, brand partnerships and licensing straightforward, and they make new technology usable without risk. A licensed likeness can appear on stage through Holobox, in an approved campaign, or in a production, on terms that are documented from the start.