Agency.
Consent.
Attribution.
Permanently protected.

AI systems can now generate convincing synthetic representations of any individual at industrial scale, in seconds, at negligible cost. The rights performers, athletes, musicians, and creators hold over their own identities are increasingly legally stated and technically unenforceable.

The law has created rights. The market has created harms. The infrastructure that would connect the two does not yet exist at scale. HAND exists to build that infrastructure — and has been building it since 2021.

A trade association can operate a registry. Only a foundation can hold the standard in permanent public trust — beyond acquisition, beyond redirection, beyond the reach of any single commercial interest. The Foundation is the structural guarantee that what HAND has built cannot become what it was built to prevent.

HAND governs the standard. The Foundation funds the mission. Persistence by design.

Those involved in the creation and interpretation of artistic works such as literature, music, dance, movies and television should have the right:

1. To be unambiguously identified through machine readable codes that can be associated with their endeavours.
2. To have their name and an unambiguous code associated with their endeavours when they elect to require this.
3. For this association to be a technically robust binding so that it is hard to remove the association.
4. To be able to license, or refuse to license, their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL — including their vocal timbre and style) for the creation of digital replicas.
5. To have their name and unambiguous code robustly associated (when they require it) with digital replicas in a way that makes it clear that the replica uses the NIL of the creator but does not capture the creator themselves.
6. To have an unambiguous code associated (when they require it) with each distinct authorised digital replica so that compliance with the relevant licence can be ascertained.
7. To be protected from digital replicas that assert or imply that they capture the creator themselves.
8. To be protected from digital replicas that are not in compliance with the licence conditions applicable to the identity of the relevant replica.
9. To be protected from captures and digital replicas that are associated with names or codes that are incorrect, whether or not this is done in pursuit of gain by the party involved.

These rights were written in November 2023 — before AB 1836 became law, before the NO FAKES Act gained federal momentum, before SAG-AFTRA renegotiated its CBA. Every one of the nine rights above is now either codified in statute, in active negotiation, or in litigation. This is not a manifesto that has aged. This is a manifesto that is right, and meets the moment today. The Foundation exists to ensure the infrastructure those rights require endures permanently.

The Foundation is not a subsidiary. It is a peer institution — the fourth layer of a governance architecture that traces directly to Dr. Robert E. Kahn, co-inventor of TCP/IP, who designed each layer for resilience, extensibility, and longevity.

The HAND Foundation’s first Board of Trustees is currently in formation and will be announced by summer 2026.