Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security Act of 2024 (formerly Personal Rights Protection Act of 1984)

ELVIS Act

Artificial intelligence · Biometric · Other

Tennessee's right-of-publicity statute gives every individual a property right in the use of their name, photograph, voice, and likeness. The 2024 ELVIS Act added voice (including simulated or AI-generated voice) as a protected right and created liability for publishing unauthorized voice or likeness replicas and for distributing tools whose primary purpose is cloning a particular person. Rights survive death and pass to heirs, subject to First Amendment fair-use exceptions.

Where: Tennessee
Citation: Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 47-25-1101 to 47-25-1108 (as amended by 2024 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 588, HB 2091/SB 2096)
Status: In force
Last amended: 2024-07-01
Enforced by: Private civil actions in chancery or circuit court; criminal prosecution for unauthorized commercial use
People can sue: Yes
Penalties: Injunctions, actual damages plus attributable profits, and other remedies under § 47-25-1106; unauthorized commercial use under § 47-25-1105(a) is also a Class A misdemeanor. Holders of exclusive recording contracts or distribution licenses may also sue.
Applies to: Any person or entity that uses an individual's name, photograph, voice, or likeness for advertising, fundraising, or solicitation without consent
Anyone who publishes or makes available an individual's voice or likeness knowing it was not authorized, including AI-generated simulations
Anyone who distributes technology whose primary purpose is producing a specific identifiable individual's photograph, voice, or likeness, knowing the use is unauthorized

Rights it gives people

Every individual has a property right in the use of their name, photograph, voice, or likeness in any medium; "voice" includes a simulation readily attributable to the individual.Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 47-25-1102, 47-25-1103(a) · From 2024-07-01

Practices it requires

Obtain prior consent (a parent's for a minor, heirs' or executor's for a deceased person) before knowingly using a name, photograph, voice, or likeness for advertising, fundraising, or solicitation.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1105(a)(1)
Do not publish, perform, distribute, or transmit an individual's voice or likeness to the public knowing the use was not authorized.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1105(a)(2) · From 2024-07-01
Do not distribute an algorithm, software, tool, or service whose primary purpose is producing a particular identifiable individual's photograph, voice, or likeness, knowing the output is unauthorized.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1105(a)(3) · From 2024-07-01

Other duties

Fair-use safe harbors (to the extent the First Amendment protects the use) for news, commentary, criticism, satire, parody, non-deceptive audiovisual portrayals, and fleeting or incidental uses.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1107(a) · From 2024-07-01
Advertising media owners are liable if they knew or reasonably should have known of the unauthorized use.Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1107(c) · From 2024-07-01

Sources

Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.

Unverified: Original effective date of the 1984 Personal Rights Protection Act was not confirmed from a primary source, so effective_date is null; the ELVIS amendments took effect July 1, 2024. | Remedy and criminal-penalty details in §§ 47-25-1105(b) and 47-25-1106 are from code-publisher text, not the official code, because the official Lexis code could not be fetched. | Last section number of the part (§ 47-25-1108) not confirmed.

Research reference, not legal advice.