Artificial Intelligence and Copyright: Balancing Innovation with Established Business Models in the Creative Industries

The case study sets out the dilemma between the need for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) companies to train their GenAI models on vast amounts of data, scraped from the internet without regard for copyright holders’ right to control how their copyrighted works are used. The case study identifies how the lack of legal clarity has led copyright holders to take legal action against GenAI companies in several jurisdictions. The case study also considers the response of governments and draws on the real-world examples of public consultations in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. These consultations have demonstrated the tension between the need to protect established business models that benefit the creative industries and the need for innovation that can lead to new business models and economic growth.