Are Chefs Losing Control? The Hidden Battle Between AI and Copyright Licensing Revealed
While the result of the case is far from certain, it is an interesting thought experiment to consider a world that might develop if machine ingesting and training on content is deemed Fair Use. One might see a world in which the free exchange of information is massively curtailed. Authors and publishers might rush to protect their works behind a licensing wall. Even structures like Creative Commons licenses are not without limitations on what one can do with works even though reading the content is free. Except for CC-0, each of the CC licenses has an attribution requirement on subsequent reuse, as well as other restrictions based on what license the author chooses. Machines have been routinely ignoring this license restriction without consequence, but CC is seeking to address this with its Signals effort. We could enter a world where ever-more content is licensed rather than sold, and as part of that license, machine interactions might be limited, if not entirely rejected. We’re starting to see this in the application of AI training rights-reservation statements that were initiated by the EU in the Text and Data Mining (TDM) Exception authorized under Article 4 of the DSM Directive and the EU AI Act, in article 53. Without these reservations in the US, I expect we will see ever-increasing reliance on content licensing to limit access and reuse as a matter of contract law, avoiding the issue of Fair Use and protections of copyright.
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