AB 2602: Contracts against public policy: personal or professional services: digital replicas.

Existing law prohibits an employer from requiring an employee or applicant for employment to agree, in writing, to any term or condition that is known by the employer to be illegal. Existing law provides that certain contractual agreements between an employer and employee are against public policy, including specified provisions affecting an employees membership in a labor organization and the protection of state law in employment. Under existing law, enforcement of state labor laws is generally committed to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement within the Department of Industrial Relations under the direction of the Labor Commissioner.

This bill would provide that a provision in an agreement between an individual and any other person for the performance of personal or professional services is unenforceable only as it relates to a new performance, fixed on or after January 1, 2025, by a digital replica of the individual if the provision meets specified conditions relating to the use of a digital replica of the voice or likeness of an individual in lieu of the work of the individual. The bill would define digital replica to mean a computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual that is embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work, or transmission in which the actual individual either did not actually perform or appear, or the actual individual did perform or appear, but the fundamental character of the performance or appearance has been materially altered, except as prescribed.