Lithuanian lawmakers have proposed amendments to the Civil Code that would establish a legal right to one’s voice, requiring consent for its reproduction, publication or other use, amid growing concerns about artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes.
The proposed protection would cover recordings of a person’s actual voice as well as imitations and artificially generated voices that could be used to identify them.
Exceptions would apply to parody and satire, provided they did not mislead the public about a recording’s authenticity or violate a person’s honour, dignity, professional reputation or privacy.
Conservative lawmaker Vytautas Kernagis, one of the proposal’s authors, said advances in AI made it increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine voices from synthetic ones, creating opportunities for disinformation and fraud.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last week registered the phrase “Io sono Giorgia Meloni” (“I am Giorgia Meloni”) as an EU trademark to protect herself against AI-generated voice imitations.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius has no plans to follow her example, saying trademark protection against unauthorised commercial use would not address political deepfakes.
The government said it would assess whether Lithuanian law adequately protects people’s voices and digital likenesses. Sinkevičius’ AI adviser, Linas Eriksonas, said Lithuania should also examine Denmark’s proposal to prohibit the publication of realistic digital replicas of a person’s appearance and voice without consent.
President Gitanas Nausėda also has no plans to introduce special legal measures to protect his voice.
Democratic lawmaker Agnė Širinskienė backed the proposed amendments, saying the need for protection had grown as technology made realistic voice cloning possible.
Conservative lawmaker and opera singer Vytautas Juozapaitis also supported discussing the issue but stressed that malicious deepfakes must be distinguished from creative works.
Parody and artistic expression should remain protected, he said, while deliberately deceptive imitations should be addressed.
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