EU Rallies for Payment Over Copyrighted Usage by AI

As artificial intelligence tools race ahead, European lawmakers are drawing a clear line: if AI systems are built using Europe’s books, articles, music, or images, the people who created that work should be paid.

On Wednesday, members of the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee adopted a report demanding that AI companies be far more open about what data they use to train generative AI systems — and that creators receive fair compensation when their copyrighted work is involved.

The push comes just months before the European Union is set to review its copyright rules, a process that is expected to become a flashpoint between the fast-growing AI industry and Europe’s powerful creative and media sectors.

At the heart of lawmakers’ concerns is transparency. The committee called on AI providers to clearly disclose what material goes into training their models, arguing that creators cannot defend their rights if they do not know how their work is being used.

The report also takes a firm stance on the news media industry, saying publishers should have full control over whether their content can be used to train AI systems — including the right to say no.

Lawmakers urged the European Commission to make sure that any use of copyrighted content results in adequate payment to the sector involved. They also stressed that EU copyright law should apply to all generative AI systems available in the bloc, regardless of whether those systems are trained inside or outside Europe.

The European Union already adopted sweeping AI legislation in 2024, requiring AI systems to comply with existing copyright law. But lawmakers acknowledged that gray areas remain, particularly when it comes to general-purpose AI — systems designed to perform a wide range of tasks rather than a single function.

Parliamentary research cited in the report found that current exceptions allowing text and data mining are “not clear enough,” leaving researchers, companies, and creators facing legal uncertainty.

“Generative AI must not operate outside the rule of law,” said Axel Voss, a German lawmaker who has been leading the effort in parliament. “If copyrighted works are used to train AI systems, creators are entitled to transparency, legal certainty, and fair compensation.”

Voss pushed back against the idea that copyright protections stand in the way of technological progress. “Innovation cannot come at the expense of copyright,” he said. “Both can and must coexist.” The proposal passed the committee by a wide margin and is expected to go before the full European Parliament for a vote during its plenary session in March.