Information society services, including social networks and content-sharing platforms.

Act amending the Copyright Act

(Introduction of performance protection and protection against digitally generated imitations, etc.)

The objective of the bill is to introduce two new forms of protection in the Copyright Act:

1. General protection against realistic digitally generated imitations of personal characteristics, cf. Section 1, No. 11, of the bill (Section 73a of the Copyright Act).
This concerns the protection of natural persons, both Danish and foreign nationals, against the publishing without consent of realistic digitally generated imitations of other persons’ personal characteristics (such as appearance, voice, etc.). The act applies on Danish territory only.
2. Imitation protection for performing artists, cf. Section 1, No. 9, of the bill (Section 65a of the Copyright Act).
This concerns protection of performers and artists against the publishing without consent of realistic digitally generated imitations of their performances or artistic expressions.
The two proposed imitation protections will indirectly affect information society services. The imitation protection in Section 65a of performers and artists will be covered by the Danish rule implementing Article 17 of the DSM Directive.
The protection against imitation of personal characteristics will make the publishing of realistic digitally generated imitations without consent illegal under Danish law, which means that it can be reported to an online sharing platform as illegal content if it is shared there.
In addition, the bill provides for the introduction of a rule by which the Danish courts may decide that copies that infringe rights over work or other subject matter protected under Sections 65-71 and Section 73a of the Copyright Act must be removed from the medium on which it has been made available. Media refers to digital and analogue devices and platforms on which data can be stored and/or displayed. Digital platforms are understood, for example, to mean social media platforms, online content-sharing services and file and document-sharing platforms, etc.
The bill does not propose imposing additional commitments on information society services, but there will be more content that can be reported to the services as illegal on the basis of the proposal.
This notification is a new notification under the previously withdrawn draft notification number 2025/642/DK.