Training Generative AI Models on Copyrighted Works Is Fair Use
by Katherine Klosek, Director of
Information Policy and Federal Relations, Association of Research
Libraries (ARL), and Marjory S. Blumenthal, Senior Policy Fellow,
American Library Association (ALA) Office of Public Policy and Advocacy |
January 23, 2024
. . . But as champions of fair use, free speech, and freedom of information,
libraries have a stake in maintaining the balance of copyright law so
that it is not used to block or restrict access to information. We [LCA] drafted the principles on AI and copyright in response to efforts to
amend copyright law to require licensing schemes for generative AI that
could stunt the development of this technology, and undermine its
utility to researchers, students, creators, and the public. The LCA
principles hold that copyright law as applied and interpreted by the
Copyright Office and the courts is flexible and robust enough to address
issues of copyright and AI without amendment. The LCA principles also
make the careful and critical distinction between input to train an LLM,
and output—which could potentially be infringing if it is substantially
similar to an original expressive work.
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