Laws & Statutes › GA › GA-HB-1399
HB-1399
GA · State · USA
GA
USA
● Pending
Proposed Effective Date
2026-07-01
Georgia House Bill 1399 — Georgia Likeness, Expression, Generative AI, and Commercial Yield (LEGACY) Act
The LEGACY Act creates a statutory right of publicity for Georgia, establishing that every individual has a property right in their likeness that survives death for 50 years. The Act prohibits any person or entity from creating, distributing, or exploiting an individual's likeness in a digital replica for commercial purposes without written, express consent specifying the allowance, extent, purpose, and duration of use. Consent cannot be implied by silence, general terms and conditions, or unrelated prior agreements. After receiving notice of non-consent, entities that knowingly continue to distribute a digital replica are in violation. Enforcement is exclusively through a private right of action, with remedies including actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees.
Passage Likelihood
Low
Chamber No passage
Committee No action
Majority party No
Bipartisan No
Prior session None
Legislative History
2026-02-19 other House Hopper
2026-02-20 other House First Readers
2026-02-24 other House Second Readers
Mapped Requirements
CP-02 Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery CP-01 Deceptive & Manipulative AI Conduct
Official Sources
Full Text ↗
Entry Last Reviewed
2026-04-01
AI generated
Summary

The LEGACY Act creates a statutory right of publicity for Georgia, establishing that every individual has a property right in their likeness that survives death for 50 years. The Act prohibits any person or entity from creating, distributing, or exploiting an individual's likeness in a digital replica for commercial purposes without written, express consent specifying the allowance, extent, purpose, and duration of use. Consent cannot be implied by silence, general terms and conditions, or unrelated prior agreements. After receiving notice of non-consent, entities that knowingly continue to distribute a digital replica are in violation. Enforcement is exclusively through a private right of action, with remedies including actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney's fees.

Enforcement & Penalties
Enforcement Authority
Private right of action. No designated agency enforcer. An individual who is aggrieved by a violation of the article may bring a civil action. Standing requires that the individual be aggrieved by the unauthorized use of their likeness in a digital replica. Courts may also grant injunctive relief independently.
Penalties
Aggrieved individuals may recover actual damages, equitable relief (including injunctions and restitution of money and property), punitive damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and any other relief the court deems proper. No statutory minimum or per-violation amount is specified. Punitive damages are available, which do not require proof of actual monetary harm. Courts may independently grant injunctive relief.
Who Is Covered
Compliance Obligations 5 obligations · click obligation ID to open requirement page
CP-02 Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery · CP-02.4 · DeveloperDeployer · Content Generation
O.C.G.A. § 10-1-973(a)-(b), (f)
Plain Language
No person or entity may create, distribute, or commercially exploit a digital replica of an individual's likeness without express written consent from that individual. Consent must be specific and affirmative — it must spell out the allowance, extent, purpose, and duration of the use. Consent cannot be implied through silence, buried in general terms and conditions, or inferred from an unrelated prior agreement. The consent requirement applies regardless of whether the individual was compensated. Liability turns solely on consent — if the individual consented, there is no violation; if the individual did not consent, there is a violation regardless of intent, knowledge, or other factors.
Statutory Text
(a) Creation, distribution, or exploitation of an individual's likeness in a digital replica for commercial purposes requires consent from the individual for such use. (b) Absence of compensation to an individual for the use of his or her likeness shall not negate the requirements of consent under this article. (f) Liability under this article shall only depend on whether or not an individual consented to the use of his or her likeness in a digital replica.
CP-02 Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery · CP-02.4 · DeployerDistributor · Content Generation
O.C.G.A. § 10-1-973(d)
Plain Language
Once an entity receives notice that an individual did not consent to a digital replica using their likeness, the entity must stop distributing or making the digital replica available. Continued knowing distribution after notice constitutes a violation. This is a notice-and-takedown obligation — liability for distribution does not require knowledge prior to receiving notice, but knowing distribution after notice creates an independent violation. This is separately actionable from the initial creation or exploitation violation in § 10-1-973(a).
Statutory Text
(d) After receiving notice that an individual did not consent for the use of a digital replica, any entity that knowingly distributes or continues to make available such digital replica shall be in violation of this article.
CP-01 Deceptive & Manipulative AI Conduct · CP-01.5 · DeveloperDeployer · Content Generation
O.C.G.A. § 10-1-973(e)
Plain Language
Even where consent has been obtained for commercial use of a digital replica, the digital replica must not falsely imply that the depicted individual personally endorsed or approved the specific use of their likeness. This is an anti-deception requirement that applies independently of the consent obligation — it prohibits false endorsement implications regardless of whether underlying consent for the likeness use exists.
Statutory Text
(e) A digital replica used for commercial purposes shall not falsely imply that an individual personally endorsed or approved such use of his or her likeness.
Other · Content Generation
O.C.G.A. § 10-1-973(c)
Plain Language
No person or entity may claim to own, have authored, or hold exclusive rights over another individual's likeness merely because they created a digital replica using that likeness. This prevents AI developers and users from asserting that generating a digital replica of someone gives them proprietary rights over that person's likeness. This is a property-rights limitation rather than a new affirmative compliance obligation — it reinforces the individual's property right established in § 10-1-972.
Statutory Text
(c) No individual or entity shall claim ownership, authorship, or exclusive rights over an individual's likeness solely by the use of an individual's likeness in a digital replica.
Other · Content Generation
O.C.G.A. § 10-1-972(a)-(c)
Plain Language
Every individual has a property right in their likeness that is transferable, licensable, and descendible — it survives the individual's death for 50 years. After death, use of the individual's likeness requires consent from the individual (given during their lifetime), their estate, or their legal representative. This establishes the foundational property right that the rest of the article protects but does not itself impose an affirmative AI compliance obligation — it is the legal predicate for the consent and enforcement provisions that follow.
Statutory Text
(a) Every individual has a property right to his or her likeness. (b) The property rights of an individual's likeness are transferable, licensable, and descendible and shall survive the death of the individual for 50 years. (c) Post-mortem use of an individual's likeness shall be permitted only where such individual consented to such use during his or her life, consent is given by the estate of such individual, or consent is given by a legal representative of such individual.