The SOUL Act of 2026 gives every U.S. citizen automatic ownership rights over their personal identity—including their name, face, voice, body movements, and even AI-generated copies of these things. Think of it like copyright protection, but for you as a person instead of for creative works. If someone creates a deepfake video of you, uses your voice without permission in an AI tool, or builds a digital avatar that looks and sounds like you for commercial purposes, you can now sue them in federal court. The law covers a broad range of identity elements: your legal name and nicknames, photos and videos, your physical appearance and movements, your natural voice and AI reproductions of it, biometric data like facial recognition patterns, and even genetic information when used commercially. The rights last your entire lifetime plus 50 years after you die, so your heirs can protect your identity too. You don't have to register or do anything special—these rights are yours automatically from birth. However, the law includes important exceptions: parody, satire, news reporting, scholarly work, and other transformative artistic uses are still allowed under fair use principles. The government can still use your likeness for law enforcement and national security. And anything people were already doing with your likeness before this law takes effect is grandfathered in and protected.