In the generative AI era, there is a proliferation of open source claims (i.e. operators that claim to release AI models sufficiently open to be part of the open source or open innovation movement, as opposed to closed-source model), such as open source and open access foundation models (e.g. Google BERT, Meta LLaMA Large Language…

Welcome to the first trimester of the 2024 roundup of EU copyright law (though with a slight delay)! In this edition, we update you on what has happened between January and March 2024 in EU copyright law. Interestingly enough, in this issue you will find quite a bit of UK policy reports. As our regular…

The sweeping evolution of generative AI models is rapidly reshaping the legal landscape of copyright. In the wake of the landmark cases of Authors Guild, Inc v HathiTrust and Authors Guild, Inc v Google, Inc – or the Google Books case –, the fair use doctrine has accommodated a core principle of non-expressive use, referring…

Large language models’ (LLMs) greatest strength may also be their greatest weakness: their learning is so advanced that sometimes, just like humans, they memorise. This is not surprising, of course, because computers are really good at mainly two things: storing and analysing data.  There is now empirical evidence that deep learning models are prone to…

The case recently brought against OpenAI by the New York Times is the latest in a series of legal actions involving AI in the United States, and mirrored in other countries –notably, the UK. In order to train their technologies, should AI companies be allowed to use works under copyright protection without consent? The lawsuits…

The UK’s attempt to deal with generative AI, training data and copyright law has taken yet another turn. On 6 February 2024, in its response to the AI White Paper consultation, the UK government announced that it will drop its plans for a code of practice on copyright and AI – a work it has…

On November 27, 2023, the Beijing Internet Court (BIC) ruled in an infringement lawsuit (Li v. Liu) that an AI-generated image is copyrightable and that a person who prompted the AI-generated image is entitled to the right of authorship under Chinese Copyright Law (see our bilingual version, and the later-released official translation). Plaintiff generated an…

In a statement made on 12 October 2023, the French collecting society Sacem, which represents most authors/composers and publishers of music in France, announced that it is opting out of machine learning training for the works in its repertoire. Sacem explains that it is basing its opt-out from generative AI systems on Article L122-5-3 of…

New year’s fatigue? Or possibly AI fatigue? But the new year has only just begun! It does seem like the topic of AI and copyright was everywhere in the copyright world last year. While some digital topics have been known to cause a great commotion in copyright circles only to later sink practically without a…