Public consultation on AI copyright protection starts

Ayra Wang

The government is considering introducing copyright exceptions for text and data mining by artificial intelligence as it launched a public consultation on the current Copyright Ordinance to protect the development of the technology.

The two-month consultation, jointly overseen by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and the Intellectual Property Department until September 8, seeks views from the public and sectors such as film, art, innovation and technology.

"The rapid advancement of AI technology, particularly generative AI, has induced revolutionary impacts on diverse domains and industries, as well as a number of copyright issues worldwide," the bureau said.

The consultation will focus on copyright protection and copyright infringement liability for AI-generated works and other issues such as deepfake and transparency of AI systems.

The consultation will also discuss the possibility of introducing a new copyright exception for text and data collection and analysis by computers, especially for AI model training.

"The increasing prevalence of computational data analysis and processing in AI technology development necessitates a timely review of our copyright law so that it may adapt to the rising technological trend while balancing the legitimate interests between copyright owners and users," the department said.

The department meanwhile said it will refer to other global practices and make conditions and scopes for the exception clear if introduced.

It also suggested that copyright exceptions should be made for both commercial and non-commercial studies and training of AI to further enhance its development.

However, the government will not make substantial amendments to provisions on copyright protection and infringement, as it currently already covered AI-generated work.

The current ordinance regulates human-created work and computer-generated work without a human author, which has already included AI-generated work.

"The definition of 'computer-generated work' is flexible enough to cope with ever-changing technology. The government believes that there are not sufficient grounds to make substantive amendments to relevant provisions at the current stage," the bureau said.

The consultation document has been uploaded onto the two agencies' websites. The public can submit their views by email, fax or post.

The government will hold a public forum on August 2. Registration on the department's website will close on July 26.

ayra.wang@singtaonewscorp.com