Professor Ilanah Fhima interviewed on generative AI copyright liability

Ilanah Fhima, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at UCL Laws and Co-director of the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) was interviewed recently by the Financial Times about liability for copyright infringement arising from the use of generative AI tools.

The interview followed Microsoft’s recent announcement that the tech company have agreed to assume responsibility if any of its commercial customers face allegations of copyright infringement arising from proper use of its AI-powered Copilot services. This announcement was made as the producers of AI-based products are increasingly fighting infringement actions around the world as copyright owners, including image library Getty Images, claim that their protected works have been used without their permission to train the large language models (LLMs) that underpin these AI-based tools.

Professor Fhima commented that commitments such as that made by Microsoft ‘opens up the market’ and makes the AI tools ‘more usable as it removes the one of the obstacles for businesses if they know that they have that reassurance.’ She noted that Microsoft was taking a calculated risk, since the legal basis and precedents for disputes involving AI are still in development. ‘There is a public interest in their being technological development, and strict rights of copyright aren’t always enforced.’  

The UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation will be exploring some of the issues surrounding AI and IP in events taking place during the next academic year.

You can read the full FT article here.