“Copyright is very much a technological and cultural tool that needs to be applied in different circumstances. We try to write copyright law in such a way that it is technologically neutral, to the degree that it lasts a long time, even when technologies evolve,” said Dr Hayleigh Bosher, Associate Dean and Reader in Intellectual Property Law, Brunel University London on the 7th November 2023, during the meeting of The Communications and Digital Committee.
The Committee discussed where Large Language Models used in generative AI stand with copyright law. As Dr Bosher highlighted, “The principles of when you need a licence and when you don’t is clear. To make a reproduction of a copyright-protected work without permission would require a licence. It would otherwise be infringement, and that’s what AI does at different steps of the process. We’re in a position where some AI tech developers are arguing a different interpretation of the law”.
The witnesses of this session were: Dan Conway, Chief Executive Officer, Publishers Association; Arnav Joshi, Senior Associate, Clifford Chance; Richard Mollet, Head of European Government Affairs, RELX; Dr Hayleigh Bosher, Associate Dean and Reader in Intellectual Property Law, Brunel University London.
Reported by:
Eliza Kania
eliza.kania@brunel.ac.uk