A few weeks ago, the Spanish Ministry of Culture released a legislative proposal aimed at introducing extended collective licensing (ECL) for the development of general-purpose AI models. The first of its kind, the “Draft Royal Decree to regulate the granting of extended collective licenses for the massive exploitation of works and other subject matter protected…

As the discussion on AI regulation is intensifying around the globe, the Australian Government’s Department for Industry, Science and Resources has recently announced Safe and responsible AI in Australia: Proposals paper for introducing mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings.  The Proposals Paper is strongly influenced by the EU AI Act, which is cited on…

Introduction The interaction between the AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) and the exceptions for text and data mining (TDM) in the CDSM Directive is one of the most important topics in EU copyright law today. One particularly controversial point of intersection is the AI Act’s attempt, through recital 106, to give extraterritorial effect to its copyright-related…

In the first part of this post on the Kneschke vs. LAION decision by the German Hamburg Regional Court (“Court”), we explored the Court’s key findings regarding the operational step in a generative AI model, and the decision on the exceptions for scientific research text and data mining (“TDM”) and temporary reproductions. Now, in this…

On September 27, 2024, the German Hamburg Regional Court (“Court”) issued the first ruling on reproductions of copyrighted content from the Internet made during the creation of an AI training data set – and on whether the copyright exceptions for text and data mining (“TDM”) provide statutory permission for such use (Landgericht Hamburg, 310 O…

Copyright is not averse to new technologies. Its history is intrinsically linked to technological development. At each stage, revisions, adjustments, and adaptations to the existing organizational and legal structure are necessary and ideally preceded by wide-ranging and informed debate. The same holds true for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. And the interaction between copyright and AI…

Code as a literary work Following lengthy discussion in the 1970s and 1980s, by 1991 in the EU and 1994 at the WTO level, the legal status of computer programs was a settled matter: software was to be treated under copyright as a literary work. Source code and object code are protected by copyright. As…

The German Regional Court (Landgericht) of Hamburg handed down its judgment in the LAION case on 27 September 2024 (file no. 310 O 227/23, published in German here).   The key points of the decision are as follows: The reproduction of works for the purpose of creating URL lists that can be used for artificial…

Now that the summer is formally over it is time for the third trimester of the 2024 roundup of EU copyright law. In this edition, we update you on what has happened between July and September 2024 in EU copyright law – all the way from the CJEU, through Advocate General (AG) Opinions, to important…

Generative AI (GenAI) is promising to revolutionise higher education. Whether it concerns legal scholars using ChatGPT to write their essays, computer science majors relying on GitHub Copilot to generate programming code, or art students turning to Midjourney to create visual artistry: the relevant AI tools to assist with educational assignments are readily available online. The…