The European Parliament wants to strengthen the protection of copyrighted works in the age of artificial intelligence. The Strasbourg Chamber approved in plenary, with 460 votes in favour, 71 against and 88 abstentions, a series of recommendations which ask, among other things, that European copyright rules apply to all generative AI systems on the EU market, even if trained outside the Union.
The objective is to ensure greater legal clarity on the use of creative content in the development processes of artificial intelligence technologies. MEPs also ask the Commission to find a solution to guarantee remuneration for past use of content, which excludes the use of a global license that allows providers to train their own genAI systems in exchange for a lump sum payment.
Protection of the media sector
MEPs also call on the Commission to protect the press and media sector, whose content is frequently exploited by AI systems. News organizations whose traffic and revenues are diverted by AI systems should be fully compensated and should also have the right to refuse the use of their content for training AI systems.
“We need clear rules on the use of copyrighted content for AI training. Legal certainty would allow developers to know which content can be used and how to obtain licenses,” said the text’s rapporteur, German politician Axel Voss. “At the same time, rights holders would be protected from unauthorized use of their content and would receive remuneration,” he added.
