Today, the JURI Committee adopted Axel Voss’s own-initiative report on copyright and generative AI. The Committee also endorsed all compromise amendments, some of which reflect concerns raised by COMMUNIA and other stakeholders. However, even with these changes, the report still contains ambiguities and problematic language that risk creating legal uncertainty, particularly for researchers and developers of public-interest AI systems.
What has improved?
We welcome the Committee’s decision to adopt amendments recognising that AI training is covered by the TDM exceptions, limiting the nature of the presumption of use, removing the proposal for immediate mandatory compensation, and strengthening safeguards for users’ rights (for an in-depth analysis, see our pre-vote assessment). While we did not endorse the report as a whole—and the language remains imperfect on some of these points—these changes constitute clear improvements over the original text. Notably, the strengthened users’ rights protections may even point towards improvements beyond the current legal framework.
What remains problematic?
We remain especially concerned about one provision in particular. The language on media content can be interpreted extremely broadly, calling on the Commission to explore extending the press publishers’ right and the broadcasting right in order to grant press and news media rightsholders “full control” over the use of their content for AI training and related uses. According to the text, these uses would require “explicit consent,” which could be read as removing press and news media content from the scope of the text and data mining (TDM) exceptions.
It is our understanding now that at least parts of the Committee did not intend to propose a new exclusive right, but rather to underline the importance of the press and news media. Nevertheless, the wording is overreaching and risks being interpreted in ways that would fundamentally undermine the existing legal framework.
What happens next?
The plenary vote for the report is scheduled for March, giving all Members of the European Parliament the opportunity to weigh in and address the remaining shortcomings of the text.
We urge MEPs to utilise this opportunity to focus on correcting the far-reaching provisions on press and news media content and address the remaining ambiguities in the text.