CC Reaction to JURI Report on Copyright and Generative AI

Before the European Commission had finalized its Code of Practice on the AI Act, which covers copyright-related issues, the European Parliament was already looking to further rush legislative changes to ensure copyright is fit for the AI age. Last week, the Parliament’s Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee released a first draft of a new own-initiative report on generative AI and copyright (PDF). Here are a few initial reflections to some of the suggested ideas.

We appreciate the report’s focus on implementing workable opt-outs (rights reservation) tools, which could include the use of tools like CC signals, and centralized rights information registries (potentially hosted at the EUIPO). To ensure interoperability, policymakers should build on ongoing work in multi-stakeholder fora like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

We also appreciate the report’s exploration of novel ways to equitably fund creators and creativity. There are a range of policy avenues to ensure artists and culture thrive in the age of AI. An expanded view that considers support for the commons would complement the report’s otherwise narrow focus on individual rightsholders. 

That said, the report's proposed changes to copyright and the existing text-and-data mining (TDM) exceptions in the Copyright Directive would be harmful. Specifically, it threatens to remove generative AI from the scope of these existing exceptions and limitations – potentially undercutting the wide variety of others (including scientists and researchers) who may develop AI models. While we think it is important to address the social challenges of generative AI, undermining copyright’s exceptions and limitations is not the right way forward. In fact, there are better alternatives that focus on reciprocity to society for use of collective goods. 

We generally align ourselves with COMMUNIA’s take on the initial draft report, which goes into further detail: https://communia-association.org/2025/07/07/a-first-look-into-the-juri-draft-report-on-copyright-and-ai/.