Call Governor Newsom to Urge a Veto on AB-412
Veeto created this phone call template.
Use the script below to call your representatives.
Hello my name is [Full Name] and I am a [developer/ startup founder/ student/ etc.] from [City/District]. I am calling to express my strong opposition to AB-412 (Generative artificial intelligence: training data: copyrighted materials). This bill will impose impossible compliance burdens on small developers and startups. I am asking Governor Newsom to veto AB-412 if it reaches his desk.
Talking points:
The bill now covers “registered, pre-registered, or indexed” works, plus pre-1972 sound recordings—none of which are machine-readable or consistently searchable.
Developers would be forced to track obscure, hard-to-identify works and generate “digital fingerprints” for them—a technical task with no standard or realistic way to comply.
This bill gives Big Tech more power by locking out smaller competitors who can’t afford lawyers and licensing deals.
The penalties are steep—up to $1,000 per day per violation—even for accidental lapses. For small teams, this is existential.
It oversteps state authority. Copyright law is federal, and AB-412 jumps ahead of active court casesstill working out what fair use means for AI.
The bill’s supposed “noncommercial” carve-outs are meaningless for most developers—it protects universities and governments, but not solo builders or open-source projects.
It risks turning AI development into a closed field, dominated by companies with the biggest content libraries.
California should be supporting innovation, not regulating it out of reach for new builders.