Fresh questions are emerging around creator image and personality rights

Khaby Lame’s recently announced brand licensing deal has drawn attention for its scale and controversy, but it has also brought renewed focus to a familiar question in the creator economy: how far creators are prepared to license their commercial likeness.

The issue itself is not new. Image and personality rights have long been licensed as part of brand partnerships, but AI is arguably changing how those rights can be used, prompting creators to think more carefully about what they are giving away.

“It’s something the industry has been moving towards for a while,” said Phil Hughes, an entertainment IP lawyer and founder of the Digital Creator Association, speaking to The Daily Influence. “Most brand deals involve licensing anyway, that part isn’t new.”

Where Hughes sees a shift is in how those rights are being applied. He pointed to situations where creators expect a defined use, only to find their likeness reused across multiple formats or markets.

“A licence can have any terms attached to it that you want,” he said. “You can make it one month, one country, non-exclusive, with approval rights. Or you can make it much broader.”

Hughes’ perspective is shaped by an unusually broad career in the space. Before returning to law firm Lewis Silkin, he worked in advertising and later moved into creator representation, becoming chief commercial officer at talent management firm Gleam Futures during its growth phase. Over that period, he advised creators across brand partnerships, publishing, merchandising and long-form production.

“I’ve done everything you can possibly do with creators to monetise them,” he said.

Hughes said the key risk lies in how licences are defined. Creators, he argued, need to be clear on three fundamentals: how long a licence lasts, where it applies, and what the image or likeness can actually be used for.

“If those things aren’t clearly limited, you can end up with an AI version of yourself being used indefinitely, globally, and in contexts you didn’t anticipate,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of editorial and quality control, noting that creators typically retain approval rights in traditional brand deals.

“With AI, you don’t want to give a brand the ability to do whatever they want with your image,” Hughes said, adding that without approval rights, creators risk seeing versions of themselves appear in content that feels off-brand or damaging, with no contractual say.

Professionalising the space

Beyond individual deals, Hughes believes the creator economy is still catching up structurally. While brand partnerships are now relatively well understood, he argues that other areas, including IP ownership and long-term business building, remain underdeveloped.

“The depth is really on the brand partnership side,” he said. “Other parts of the ecosystem are still quite shallow.”

That gap was one of the reasons behind launching the Digital Creator Association, a UK-based, not-for-profit trade body representing creators and their professional representatives.

The organisation focuses on education and engagement with policymakers, and has helped establish the UK’s first all-party parliamentary group for creators.

“There’s more understanding than there used to be,” Hughes said, pointing to growing recognition of creators’ economic contribution. “But a lot of people are still signing things they don’t fully understand.”

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