Centre recommends mandatory AI licence, royalties for copyrighted works

DPIIT has floated a proposal for a blanket licence for AI training, aiming to simplify access to copyrighted works while ensuring creators receive statutory compensation for the use of their content

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Monday published a working paper proposing the introduction of a mandatory blanket licence for artificial intelligence (AI) developers to use any lawfully accessed copyright-protected material to train their models. The paper addresses widespread concerns among creators, including artists and news publishers, regarding unlawful reproduction of their intellectual property.

 

The recommendation also includes a statutory remuneration right for the copyright holders.

 

The paper, titled 'One Nation One Licence One Payment: Balancing AI Innovation and Copyright', has been released by the DPIIT to seek stakeholders' views.

 

"Generative AI has immense potential to transform the world for better, underscoring the need for a regulatory environment that supports its development. However, the processes by which the AI systems are trained, often using copyrighted materials without authorisation from copyright holders and the nature of the outputs that they generate, have sparked an important debate around copyright law," the paper noted.

 

What DPIIT recommends

 

The eight-member panel that drafted the paper examined the current framework in India and outside and recommended these measures:

• Introduction of a mandatory blanket licence allowing AI developers to use all lawfully accessed copyright-protected works for AI training.
• Provide a statutory remuneration right ensuring copyright holders are paid for such use.
• Copyright owners cannot opt out of allowing their works to be used for AI training.
• Create a centralised non-profit entity, formed by rightsholders and designated by the Central government, to collect payments from AI developers.
• Include copyright societies and collective management organisations (CMOs) as members of this entity, with one member representing each class of works.
• Ensure royalties are distributed to members and non-members, provided they register their works for receiving AI-related royalties.
• Fix royalty rates through a government-appointed committee.
• Require AI developers to pay a fixed percentage of AI-generated revenue as royalties.
• Provide a single-window mechanism for AI developers to access copyrighted works for training.

 

What is the current framework?

 

The paper noted that under current regulations, the copyrighted content is often used in AI training without the licence from the rightsholders, amounting to infringement under Section 51 of the Copyright Act, 1957.

 

The Delhi High Court is also hearing a case moved by  Asian News International (ANI) Media against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, in which the former has alleged that its content was illegally used to train AI models. Apart from ANI, several other domestic news publishers and their representative associations, media houses, and music labels have sought to intervene in the case as petitioners.

 

"The dual challenge for policymakers is to design a policy that offers adequate protection to content creators, while preserving their incentives to invest time and money in the creation of high-quality content, without erecting a barrier for the development of AI systems," the paper added.