119-s1396

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1396 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 1396

To require transparency with respect to content and content provenance 
 information, to protect artistic content, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 April 9, 2025

Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr. Heinrich) introduced 
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 
 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To require transparency with respect to content and content provenance 
 information, to protect artistic content, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Content Origin Protection and 
Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

 It is the sense of Congress that--

    (1) there is a lack of--
        (A) visibility into how artificial intelligence 
 systems work;
        (B) transparency regarding the information used to 
 train such systems; and
            (C) consensus-based standards and practices to 
 guide the development and deployment of such systems;

    (2) it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess the 
 nature, origins, and authenticity of digital content that has 
 been generated or modified algorithmically;

    (3) these deficiencies negatively impact the public and, 
 particularly, the journalists, publishers, broadcasters, and 
 artists whose content is used to train these systems and is 
 manipulated to produce synthetic content and synthetically-
 modified content that competes unfairly in the digital 
 marketplace with covered content; and

    (4) the development and adoption of consensus-based 
 standards would mitigate these impacts, catalyze innovation in 
 this nascent industry, and put the United States in a position 
 to lead the development of artificial intelligence systems 
 moving forward.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

 In this title:

    (1) Artificial intelligence.--The term ``artificial 
 intelligence'' has the meaning given the term in 

section 5002 
 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 
 (15 U.S.C. 9401).

    (2) Artificial intelligence blue-teaming.--The term 
 ``artificial intelligence blue-teaming'' means an effort to 
 conduct operational vulnerability evaluations and provide 
 mitigation techniques to entities who have a need for an 
 independent technical review of the security posture of an 
 artificial intelligence system.

    (3) Artificial intelligence red-teaming.--The term 
 ``artificial intelligence red-teaming'' means structured 
 adversarial testing efforts of an artificial intelligence 
 system to identify risks, flaws, and vulnerabilities of the 
 artificial intelligence system, such as harmful outputs from 
 the system, unforeseen or undesirable system behaviors, 
 limitations, or potential risks associated with the misuse of 
 the system.

    (4) Content provenance information.--The term ``content 
 provenance information'' means state-of-the-art, machine-
 readable information documenting the origin and history of a 
 piece of digital content, such as an image, a video, audio, or 
 text.

    (5) Covered content.--The term ``covered content'' means a 
 digital representation, such as text, an image, or audio or 
 video content, of any work of authorship described in 

section 102 of title 17, United States Code.

    (6) Covered platform.--The term ``covered platform'' means 
 a website, internet application, or mobile application 
 available to users in the United States, including a social 
 networking site, video sharing service, search engine, or 
 content aggregation service available to users in the United 
 States, that either--
        (A) generates at least $50,000,000 in annual 
 revenue; or
        (B) had at least 25,000,000 monthly active users 
 for not fewer than 3 of the 12 months immediately 
 preceding any conduct by the covered platform in 
 violation of this Act.

    (7) Deepfake.--The term ``deepfake'' means synthetic 
 content or synthetically-modified content that--
        (A) appears authentic to a reasonable person; and
        (B) creates a false understanding or impression.

    (8) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Under 
 Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of 
 the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

    (9) Synthetic content.--The term ``synthetic content'' 
 means information, including works of human authorship such as 
 images, videos, audio clips, and text, that has been wholly 
 generated by algorithms, including by artificial intelligence.

    (10) Synthetically-modified content.--The term 
 ``synthetically-modified content'' means information, including 
 works of human authorship such as images, videos, audio clips, 
 and text, that has been significantly modified by algorithms, 
 including by artificial intelligence.

    (11) Under secretary.--The term ``Under Secretary'' means 
 the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology.

    (12) Watermarking.--The term ``watermarking'' means the act 
 of embedding information that is intended to be difficult to 
 remove into an output, including an output such as text, an 
 image, an audio, a video, software code, or any other digital 
 content or data, for the purposes of verifying the authenticity 
 of the output or the identity or characteristics of its 
 provenance, modifications, or conveyance

SEC. 4. FACILITATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE 
 INFORMATION AND DETECTION OF SYNTHETIC CONTENT AND 
 SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT.

    (a) In General.--The Under Secretary shall establish a public-
private partnership to facilitate the development of standards 
regarding content provenance information technologies and the detection 
of synthetic content and synthetically-modified content, including with 
respect to the following:

    (1) Facilitating the development of guidelines and 
 voluntary, consensus-based standards and best practices for 
 watermarking, content provenance information, synthetic content 
 and synthetically-modified content detection, including for 
 images, audio, video, text, and multimodal content, the use of 
 data to train artificial intelligence systems, and such other 
 matters relating to transparency of synthetic media as the 
 Under Secretary considers appropriate.

    (2) Facilitating the development of guidelines, metrics, 
 and practices to evaluate and assess tools to detect and label 
 synthetic content, synthetically-modified content, and non-
 synthetic content, including artificial intelligence red-
 teaming and artificial intelligence blue-teaming.

    (3) Establishing grand challenges and prizes in 
 coordination with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 
 and the National Science Foundation to detect and label 
 synthetic content, synthetically-modified content, and non-
 synthetic content and to develop cybersecurity and other 
 countermeasures to defend against tampering with detection 
 tools, watermarks, or content provenance information.

    (b) Consultation.--In developing the standards described in 
subsection

    (a) , the Under Secretary shall consult with the Register of 
Copyrights and the Director.

SEC. 5. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, 
 DEVELOPMENT, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION REGARDING SYNTHETIC 
 CONTENT AND SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT.

    (a) Research and Development.--The Under Secretary shall carry out 
a research program to enable advances in measurement science, 
standards, and testing relating to the robustness and efficacy of--

    (1) technologies for synthetic content and synthetically-
 modified content detection, watermarking, and content 
 provenance information; and

    (2) cybersecurity protections and other countermeasures 
 used to prevent tampering with such technologies.

    (b) Public Education Campaigns Regarding Synthetic Content.--Not 
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Under 
Secretary shall, in consultation with the Register of Copyrights and 
the Director, carry out a public education campaign regarding synthetic 
content and synthetically-modified content (including deepfakes), 
watermarking, and content provenance information.

SEC. 6. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION; PROHIBITED 
 ACTS.

    (a) Content Provenance Information.--

    (1) Synthetic content and synthetically-modified content.--
 Beginning on the date that is 2 years after the date of 
 enactment of this Act, any person who, for a commercial 
 purpose, makes available in interstate commerce a tool used for 
 the primary purpose of creating synthetic content or 
 synthetically-modified content shall--
        (A) taking into consideration the content 
 provenance information standards established under 
 

section 4, provide users of such tool with the ability 
 to include content provenance information that 
 indicates the piece of digital content is synthetic 
 content or synthetically-modified content for any 
 synthetic content or synthetically-modified content 
 created by the tool; and
        (B) in the event a user opts to include content 
 provenance information under subparagraph
        (A) , 
 establish, to the extent technically feasible, 
 reasonable security measures to ensure that such 
 content provenance information is machine-readable and 
 not easily removed, altered, or separated from the 
 underlying content.

    (2) Covered content.--Beginning on the date that is 2 years 
 after the date of enactment of this Act, any person who, for a 
 commercial purpose, makes available in interstate commerce a 
 tool used for the primary purpose of creating or substantially 
 modifying covered content shall--
        (A) taking into consideration the content 
 provenance information standards established under 
 

section 4, provide users of such tool with the ability 
 to include content provenance information for any 
 covered content created or significantly modified by 
 the tool; and
        (B) in the event a user opts to include content 
 provenance information under subparagraph
        (A) , 
 establish, to the extent technically feasible, 
 reasonable security measures to ensure that such 
 content provenance information is machine-readable and 
 not easily removed, altered, or separated from the 
 underlying content.

    (b) Removal of Content Provenance Information.--

    (1) In general.--It shall be unlawful for any person to 
 knowingly remove, alter, tamper with, or disable content 
 provenance information in furtherance of an unfair or deceptive 
 act or practice in or affecting commerce.

    (2) Covered platforms.--
        (A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph
        (B) , it 
 shall be unlawful for a covered platform, to remove, 
 alter, tamper with, or disable content provenance 
 information or to separate the content provenance 
 information from the content so that the content 
 provenance information cannot be accessed by users of 
 the platform.
        (B) Exception for security research.--A covered 
 platform shall not be liable for a violation of 
 subparagraph
        (A) if such covered platform removes, 
 alters, tampers with, or disables content provenance 
 information for a purpose necessary, proportionate, and 
 limited to perform research to enhance the security of 
 the covered platform.
            (c) Prohibition on Non-Consensual Use of Covered Content That Has 
Attached or Associated Content Provenance Information.--It shall be 
unlawful for any person, for a commercial purpose, to knowingly use any 
covered content that has content provenance information that is 
attached to or associated with such covered content or covered content 
from which the person knows or should know that content provenance 
information has been removed or separated in violation of subsection

    (b) , in order to train a system that uses artificial intelligence or an 
algorithm or to generate synthetic content or synthetically-modified 
content unless such person obtains the express, informed consent of the 
person who owns the covered content, and complies with any terms of use 
pertaining to the use of such content, including terms regarding 
compensation for such use, as required by the owner of copyright in 
such content.

SEC. 7. ENFORCEMENT.

    (a) Enforcement by the Commission.--

    (1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--A violation of 
 this Act or a regulation promulgated under this Act shall be 
 treated as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or 
 deceptive act or practice prescribed under 

section 18

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) ).

    (2) Powers of the commission.--
        (A) In general.--The Commission shall enforce this 
 Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the 
 same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 
 applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 
 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated 
 into and made a part of this title.
        (B) Privileges and immunities.--Any person who 
 violates this Act, or a regulation promulgated under 
 this Act shall be subject to the penalties and entitled 
 to the privileges and immunities provided in the 
 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).
            (C) Authority preserved.--Nothing in this Act shall 
 be construed to limit the authority of the Commission 
 under any other provision of law.

    (b) Enforcement by States.--

    (1) In general.--In any case in which the attorney general 
 of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the 
 residents of the State has been or is threatened or adversely 
 affected by the engagement of any person in a practice that 
 violates this Act, the attorney general of the State may, as 
 parens patriae, bring a civil action on behalf of the residents 
 of the State in an appropriate district court of the United 
 States to--
        (A) enjoin further violation of this Act by such 
 person;
        (B) compel compliance with this Act;
            (C) obtain damages, restitution, or other 
 compensation on behalf of such residents; and
            (D) obtain such other relief as the court may 
 consider to be appropriate.

    (2) Rights of the commission.--
        (A) Notice to the commission.--
            (i) In general.--Except as provided in 
 clause
            (iii) , the attorney general of a State 
 shall notify the Commission in writing that the 
 attorney general intends to bring a civil 
 action under paragraph

    (1) before initiating 
 the civil action.
            (ii) Contents.--The notification required 
 by clause
            (i) with respect to a civil action 
 shall include a copy of the complaint to be 
 filed to initiate the civil action.
            (iii) Exception.--If it is not feasible for 
 the attorney general of a State to provide the 
 notification required by clause
            (i) before 
 initiating a civil action under paragraph

    (1) , 
 the attorney general shall notify the 
 Commission immediately upon instituting the 
 civil action.
        (B) Intervention by the commission.--The Commission 
 may--
            (i) intervene in any civil action brought 
 by the attorney general of a State under 
 paragraph

    (1) ; and
            (ii) upon intervening--
            (I) be heard on all matters arising 
 in the civil action; and
            (II) file petitions for appeal of a 
 decision in the civil action.

    (3) Investigatory powers.--Nothing in this subsection may 
 be construed to prevent the attorney general of a State from 
 exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general by the 
 laws of the State to conduct investigations, to administer 
 oaths or affirmations, or to compel the attendance of witnesses 
 or the production of documentary or other evidence.

    (4) Action by the commission.--If the Commission institutes 
 a civil action or an administrative action with respect to a 
 violation of this Act, the attorney general of a State may not, 
 during the pendency of such action, bring a civil action under 
 paragraph

    (1) against any defendant named in the complaint of 
 the Commission for the violation with respect to which the 
 Commission instituted such action.

    (5) Venue; service or process.--
        (A) Venue.--Any action brought under paragraph

    (1) may be brought in--
            (i) the district court of the United States 
 that meets applicable requirements relating to 
 venue under 

section 1391 of title 28, United 
 States Code; or
            (ii) another court of competent 
 jurisdiction.
        (B) Service of process.--In an action brought under 
 paragraph

    (1) , process may be served in any district in 
 which the defendant--
            (i) is an inhabitant; or
            (ii) may be found.

    (6) Actions by other state officials.--
        (A) In general.--In addition to civil actions 
 brought by attorneys general under paragraph

    (1) , any 
 other officer of a State who is authorized by the State 
 to do so may bring a civil action under paragraph

    (1) , 
 subject to the same requirements and limitations that 
 apply under this subsection to civil actions brought by 
 attorneys general.
        (B) Savings provision.--Nothing in this subsection 
 may be construed to prohibit an authorized official of 
 a State from initiating or continuing any proceeding in 
 a court of the State for a violation of any civil or 
 criminal law of the State.

    (7) Damages.--If a person brings a civil action for a 
 violation of this Act pursuant to subsection
            (c) and receives 
 any monetary damages, the court shall reduce the amount of any 
 damages awarded under this subsection by the amount of monetary 
 damages awarded to such person.
            (c) Enforcement by Private Parties and Government Entities.--

    (1) In general.--Any person who owns covered content that 
 has content provenance information that is attached to or 
 associated with such covered content may bring a civil action 
 in a court of competent jurisdiction against--
        (A) any person or covered platform for removing, 
 altering, tampering with, or disabling such content 
 provenance information in violation of subsection

    (b)

    (1) or

    (b)

    (2) of 

section 6; and
        (B) any person for using such covered content in 
 violation of 

section 6
            (c) .

    (2) Relief.--In a civil action brought under paragraph

    (1) in which the plaintiff prevails, the court may award the 
 plaintiff declaratory or injunctive relief, compensatory 
 damages, and reasonable litigation expenses, including a 
 reasonable attorney's fee.

    (3) Statute of limitations.--An action for a violation of 
 this Act brought under this subsection may be commenced not 
 later than 4 years after the date upon which the plaintiff 
 discovers or should have discovered the facts giving rise to 
 such violation.

SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

 This Act does not impair or in any way alter the rights of 
copyright owners under any other applicable law.

SEC. 9. SEVERABILITY.

 If any provision of this Act, or an amendment made by this Act, is 
determined to be unenforceable or invalid, the remaining provisions of 
this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall not be affected.
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