An Act amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in forgery and fraudulent practices, providing for the offense of digital forgery, the official text

PRIOR PRINTER'S NO. 705
PRINTER'S NO.  920
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No.
649
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY PENNYCUICK, KANE, TARTAGLIONE, BROWN, LAUGHLIN,
FONTANA, VOGEL, PISCIOTTANO, ROBINSON, STEFANO, J. WARD AND
MILLER, APRIL 29, 2025
AS AMENDED ON SECOND CONSIDERATION, JUNE 9, 2025
AN ACT
Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, in forgery and fraudulent practices,
providing for the offense of digital forgery.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1.  Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes is amended by adding a section to read:
§ 4101.1.  Digital forgery.
(a)  Offense defined.--A person is guilty of digital forgery
if, with intent to defraud or injure anyone, or with knowledge
and intent the person is facilitating a fraud or injury to be
perpetrated by anyone, the person:
(1)  generates or creates and distributes a forged
digital likeness as genuine; and
(2)  knows or reasonably should know the visual
representation or audio recording is a forged digital
likeness.
(b)  Grading.--
(1)  A person who violates this section is guilty of a
misdemeanor of the first degree.
(2)  A person who violates this section through
involvement in a scheme to defraud, coerce or commit theft of
monetary assets or property is guilty of a felony of the
third degree.
(c)  Exceptions.--This section shall not apply to:
(1)     an instance of satire, parody, commentary, criticism
or works that relate to a matter of public interest or have
political or newsworthy value; or      A CONSTITUTIONALLY
PROTECTED ACTIVITY;
(2)  a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance
of the law enforcement officer's official duties   .  ;
(3)  A PROVIDER OR DEVELOPER OF ANY TECHNOLOGY USED IN
THE CREATION OF A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OR AUDIO RECORDING;
OR
(4)  ANY INFORMATION SERVICE, SYSTEM OR ACCESS SOFTWARE
PROVIDER THAT PROVIDES OR ENABLES COMPUTER ACCESS BY MULTIPLE
USERS TO A COMPUTER SERVER, INCLUDING SPECIFICALLY A SERVICE
OR SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE INTERNET.
(d)  Affirmative defense.--It is an affirmative defense to
prosecution that the defendant took reasonable action to place
viewers or listeners of the forged digital likeness on notice
that the forged digital likeness was not genuine.
(e)  Construction.--This section shall not be construed to
restrict the ability of a person to detect, prevent, respond to
or protect against security incidents, identity theft, fraud,
harassment, malicious or deceptive activities or any illegal
activity, preserve the integrity or security of systems or
investigate, report or prosecute persons responsible for the
action.
(f)  Definition.--As used in this section, the term "forged
digital likeness" means a computer-generated visual
representation of an actual and identifiable individual or audio
recording of an actual and identifiable individual's voice that:
(1)  has been created, adapted or modified to closely
resemble a genuine visual representation or audio record of
the individual;
(2)  materially misrepresents the appearance, speech or
behavior of the individual such that the fundamental
character of the individual's appearance, speech or behavior
is changed;
(3)  is likely to deceive a reasonable person to believe
that the visual representation or audio recording is genuine;
and
(4)  is created and distributed without the consent of
the individual.
Section 2.  This act shall take effect in 60 days.