The European Parliament advocates protecting copyright and creators against AI

On Tuesday, the plenary approved a series of recommendations to protect creative work covered by copyright from use by artificial intelligence, with 460 votes in favour, 71 against and 88 abstentions. MEPs believe that EU copyright law should apply to all generative artificial intelligence systems available in the EU, regardless of where such artificial intelligence is trained.

Remuneration and transparency

The text approved by the plenary insists that the use of copyright-protected material by generative artificial intelligence must be fairly remunerated in order to protect the EU’s creative sector, which generates 6.9% of the EU’s gross domestic product. MEPs want the Commission to examine how remuneration for the prior use of material can be guaranteed and reject the idea of this being done through a global licence for providers to train their generative artificial intelligence systems in exchange for a fixed price.

Parliament stresses the importance of full transparency in the use of protected content by generative artificial intelligence. It therefore calls on providers and those responsible for deploying AI to provide a detailed list of all copyright-protected works used to train AI, as well as detailed records of crawling activities for inference generation and augmented retrieval. The lack of such requirements could, according to the EP, point to a copyright infringement, with possible legal consequences for AI providers and developers. MEPs stress that, in the event of a court ruling in favour of the rights holder, the costs should be borne by the person responsible for the AI model or system.

Licensing market and voluntary opt-out from training

MEPs want the Commission to create a new licensing market for copyright-protected material, including voluntary collective licensing agreements by sector, which would include individual creators and small and medium-sized enterprises. They want to ensure that rights holders can prevent their work from being used to train AI and suggest that the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) be responsible for managing such an opt-out list.

Protection for the media

The report urges the Commission to protect the press and media sector, whose work is repeatedly exploited by AI systems. News media, whose traffic and revenue are affected by AI systems, should be compensated for this and should also have the right to refuse the use of their content to train AI systems. MEPs insist that the aggregation of news content must ensure pluralism and diversity of information, as well as avoid selective treatment of information or self-referential practices by providers for the benefit of their own AI services.

AI-generated content and individual protection

MEPs argue that content generated entirely by AI should not be protected by copyright. They also want to ensure that individuals are protected against the dissemination of manipulated and AI-generated content and stress the obligation of digital service providers to take action against such illegal use.

Statement by the rapporteur

“We need clear rules on the use of copyright-protected content to train AI. Legal certainty would allow AI developers to know what content they can use and how to obtain licences. On the other hand, rights holders would be protected against the unauthorised use of their content and would receive remuneration. If we want to promote and develop AI in Europe while protecting our creators, these provisions are absolutely indispensable,” said Axel Voss (EPP, Germany), responsible for processing the text, after the vote in plenary.

More information: European Parliament.