Recording | Copyright Law and AI: Time to Revisit Copyright Registration?

About this event

Neither the UK nor the EU have official copyright registers. Copyright protection, in line with the Berne Convention’s fundamental principle of formality-free protection, arises automatically. For creators and copyright holders, this has immediate benefits: there are no tricky forms to complete and no registration or maintenance fees to pay. But there are disadvantages too. Unlike in the realm of patents, designs and trade marks, there is no publicly accessible resource containing information about which works are protected, who is the author and current owner of a work. Given copyright’s the long term of protection, this can create challenges when administering or enforcing copyright. For reasons such as these, some countries, notably the USA, have a system in place to allow for the voluntary registration of works. Also, Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) have developed their own registration systems for works entrusted to their care.

Arguably, fast-developing generative AI technologies have made it more important to keep track of copyright ownership. The EU copyright regime establishes a rights reservation mechanism and transparency obligations as per the Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market Directive (Directive 2019/790) and the AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689). The UK Government is currently pondering on whether to introduce similar measures. Everywhere it seems debates continue to rage: how best to introduce transparency regimes in the use of copyright works for training and operating generative AI systems, and what infrastructure is needed to police opt-outs (or opt-ins?).

Against this backdrop, our expert panel will consider the increasing imperative for traceability and identifiability of works in this AI-age. Are there workable options which don’t require an official Copyright Register?

Speakers:

• James Bennett, Head of Rightsholder Relations, Copyright Licensing Agency
• Professor Martin Senftleben, Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

Chair: Professor Amanda Harcourt, Honorary Professor of Practice, UCL Faculty of Laws

Materials - Slides

• Professor Amanda Harcourt, Honorary Professor of Practice, UCL Faculty of Laws
  
  File

  harcourt_copyright-ai_may25_ucl.pdf
  
   
• James Bennett, Head of Rightsholder Relations, Copyright Licensing Agency
  
  File

  bennett_copyright-ai_may25_ucl.pdf

• Professor Martin Senftleben, Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam
  
  File

  senftleben_copyright-ai_may25_ucl.pdf

Watch the Recording

Photo by Glen Noble on Unsplash

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