Advocacy
Taking Our Message to Congress
PANA was founded on a desire to educate, recognize and uplift our diverse community of professional (and human!) audiobook narrators, and advocacy is the heart of our mission.
We are now getting back to our roots and providing a path to advocacy for our members. Our Legislative Action tool is step one of many, please stay tuned for more initiatives developed by our board and PANA volunteers.
If you are a non-member and have found yourself here, please feel free to utilize our resources.
Our Voices Matter
One powerful way to make our voices heard is by contacting our members of Congress. You’ll find letters on this page you can use to communicate with your senators and representatives on issues important to our work.
Letters to Congress
No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2023
Dear [Elected Official Name]:
As your constituent, I write to ask that you support the proposed No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2023 or NO AI FRAUDS ACT. This important measure would prohibit publication, distribution or transmission of unauthorized digital replicas without consent of the owner. It ensures that individuals have the exclusive right to authorize the use of their image, voice, or visual likeness in a digital replica. The right would be violated if someone publishes, distributes, or transmits an unauthorized digital replica, or if someone materially contributes to that conduct with knowledge there was no consent.
Under current law, audiobook performers (as well as other performers) do not have such federal protection. AI platforms have been used to make voice impersonation models for commercial purposes without the consent of, credit to, or compensation for the human whose voice was used. This has the potential to confuse consumers and damage the performer’s brand. This proposal gives artists, and other U.S. citizens, the power to protect their creative work, their rights, and their original, distinctive identity both in the online space and in our everyday world.
I strongly support this legislation and ask that you use your influence to advance the bill to a vote in the House. I also hope you might consider co-sponsoring the No AI Frauds Act and other legislation that promotes AI as an innovative tool for humanity while making sure humanity does not become the tool for AI.
Thank you for considering my views. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
NY-based PANA Members: Ask Senator Schumer to Co-Sponsor the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas and Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2023, by using his contact form on
https://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/message-chuck
Dear Senator Schumer:
As your constituent and a professional audiobook narrator, I am writing to ask that you consider co-sponsoring the proposed NO FAKES Act.
The Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2024 is a bipartisan bill that would protect the voice and visual likeness of all individuals from unauthorized computer-generated recreations from generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies.
As you are aware, this important measure would protect all Americans from having unauthorized digital replicas (including sound recordings, images, and video) produced and/or distributed without explicit consent.
Under current law, audiobook performers (as well as other performers and artists) do not have such federal protection. AI platforms have been used to make voice impersonation models for commercial purposes without the consent of, credit to, or compensation for the human whose likeness was used. This has the potential to confuse consumers and damage the performer’s brand. This proposal gives artists, and other U.S. citizens, the power to protect their creative work, their rights, and their original, distinctive identity both in the online space and in our everyday world.
I strongly support this legislation and hope you will co-sponsor it. The NO FAKES act sets up guardrails for our future, it promotes AI as an innovative tool for humanity while making sure humanity does not become the tool for AI.
Thank you for considering my views. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
How to Send a Message to Congress
Follow the steps below to send a letter to congress.
- Click the arrow to the left of the letter you want to send. This will allow you to see the entire letter. Highlight and copy the text. You can copy the highlighted text by pressing Ctrl+C (PC) or Cmd+C (Mac).
- Click on the link below. A new tab or window will open.
Find Your Members - Under “Find Your Members” enter your address in the space provided. Be certain the address shown in the list is your correct address and press Enter.
- You’ll be shown a map on the left you can use to make sure you are in your congressional district. Your members will be listed to the right of the map.
- You’ll need to click on each member’s Contact link to send them a message. In most cases this will take you to the member’s website where you can find their contact form.
- You can click in the message part of the member’s form and Press Ctrl+V (PC) or Cmd+V (Mac) to paste the contents of the message you copied earlier. Be sure to click submit to send the message.