Washington, D.C. – Following today’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing, “Too Big to Prosecute?: Examining the AI Industry’s Mass Ingestion of Copyrighted Works for AI Training” Re:Create Executive Director Brandon Butler issued the following statement. 

“Today’s one-sided hearing by Senator Hawley on copyright and AI training was like a fever dream: a vivid story with little basis in legal reality. It was a sad display that gave a shockingly short shrift to the strategic priorities of the administration, the precedent of Judiciary and the Constitutional purpose of the United States’ copyright system: ‘to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.’”  

“Our copyright system was created to serve as a catalyst for innovation and progress, not as a tech veto for rightsholder cartels or a wall of red tape to crush small companies looking to compete. As Professor Ed Lee pointed out in the lone testimony to discuss relevant legal precedent, courts are rightly recognizing the lawfulness of AI training and they’re well equipped to decide each case on the facts. Congress should respect the Courts’ longstanding role as arbiters of fair use.”

###

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.