New Media Rights Submits Comments to the Copyright Office in Study of Artificial Intelligence and Copyright

The Copyright Office is currently conducting a study on Artificial Intelligence and Copyright, focusing on the copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence technology. On October 30^th, New Media Rights submitted comments to the Copyright Office about legal issues surrounding the use of copyrightable inputs in training datasets for artificial intelligence, primarily whether or not such training uses are fair use.

As part of this analysis, we explore how companies are currently using copyright-protected materials to train AI models, and how those materials are collected and curated.  In addition, we discuss how other countries are approaching copyright and generative AI, and the practical and socioeconomic impacts of not adopting fair use arguments for training Language Learning Models.

Fair use case precedent supports the continued practice of using copyrightable materials for use in training AI technologies. But if U.S. courts and regulators consider an alternative approach that mandates a licensing market for large datasets of copyrightable materials, they should be wary of creating potentially significant oligopolies in AI development. Such a choice could put the U.S. out of step with other governments around the world, diminishing U.S. competitiveness in artificial intelligence development.

We want to thank CWSL 3L and NMR student fellow James Thomas for his work helping research and draft these comments.  James had this to say about the project:

“I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Art and Erika on this comment. Policy works such as this comment are extremely important to shaping the law and providing security for authors, artists, and companies creating Large Language Models. A finding of Fair Use for input datasets and model training will help guide regulators concerning the use of this technology going forward. This comment was both challenging and rewarding and I learned a lot during both the researching and writing process. I cannot wait to apply these skills to my further studies and work with New Media Rights.”

You can read our comments here: