In March, Americans of all backgrounds submitted their thoughts and ideas to the White House’s AI Action plan, including recommendations from large tech companies, libraries, Hollywood actors, news organizations, and many others. Yesterday the Administration released “America’s AI Action Plan” and acknowledged what Re:Create and our members have long said: America’s copyright system is equipped to handle emerging technology without new copyright regulations.
How can current copyright laws support the balance between copyright holders and the public good amidst technological advancements? Fair use. Fair use is what sets American innovators apart from the global competition. It lets all Americans – not just a powerful few – access and use copyrighted content for new, socially beneficial creations and innovations, serving the Constitutional purpose of copyright set out by the founding fathers, “to promote the progress of science.”
As fair use principles and precedents establish, and courts have recently affirmed, the use of copyrighted materials to train AI models is a protected exercise of fair use rights. Fair use allows everyone, from journalists quoting research papers to filmmakers using historical footage in documentaries to search engines providing a preview of webpages, to create the kinds of new culture and new creative and informative tools that ensure America’s leadership not only in the AI race but also in its contributions to global cultural and scientific progress.
Re:Create is a unique organization because our members span from technology companies to libraries and civil society organizations, representing a wide range of political viewpoints; however, we are united in our fight for balanced copyright laws. Fair use is a principle that is at the heart of America’s balanced copyright system. While not all Re:Create members agree on every part of the AI Action plan, there is a common theme throughout our members’ comments to the Administration: let fair use be.
We applaud the Administration for doing just that: for prioritizing American innovation and ignoring calls from special interests for new copyright regulations that would needlessly throttle AI development. Re:Create remains committed to ensuring that copyright functions as a force for innovation and creativity, not as a source of harmful red tape and barriers to creativity.
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About Re:Create: Re:Create is a coalition comprised of a broad membership of think tanks, advocacy organizations, libraries, technology companies – large and small – that serves as the leading coalition united in the fight for a balanced copyright system that is pro-innovation, pro-creator, and pro-consumer. Not every member of the Re:Create Coalition necessarily agrees on every issue, but the views we express represent the consensus among the bulk of our membership.