AI and Copyright: Legal and Legal Perspectives

• The question of whether generative AI models infringe copyright laws has been a global debate. Recent U.S. rulings confirm that transformative training on legitimately acquired texts can qualify for ‘fair use’.

• The legality of training AI with copyrighted data remains unresolved globally.

• Generative AI models can produce content that closely resembles or duplicates specific works from their training datasets, raising ethical and legal concerns.

• The legality of training AI with copyrighted data raises legal issues regarding reproduction rights under copyright law.

• The ownership of IP rights of the output of generative AI is legally uncertain.

• There is no explicit or harmonised global regulation that addresses the intellectual property implications of generative AI.

• The U.S. court judgments in favor of Anthropic and Meta deduce that the use of copyrighted material for training AI systems could qualify as fair use.

• The concerns of unauthorised data harvesting and future market damage have not been dealt with.

• Courts have signaled that piracy is still a liability and that compensation systems for creators are long overdue.

Implications for India

• The ANI versus OpenAI lawsuit clarifies how India’s existing IPR framework applies to generative AI.

• India’s IP laws are sufficient to address AI-related issues, as it recognizes works created by legal persons and provides mechanisms to enforce rights through both civil and criminal remedies, including measures against digital circumvention.